The Importance Of Pain Management

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Moaning, grimacing, and crying, is what I walked into during my first day of my preceptorship. As a new nurse, I knew I would be exposed to different situations in my career, but this was the first time I had met a patient in a situation unlike any other I had experienced. The patient I encountered, had a tracheostomy, was vented, and had a muscular dystrophy that made her fully dependent on the nurse. During my first inspection and assessment of the patient, she had already developed stage II bed sores on her buttocks, which caused her extreme discomfort and pain in any position she was in. When trying to see what I could do for her, one of the biggest concerns she addressed, was pain control and being able to express her concerns and needs,
When helping to relieve a pain that the patient states they have, it can help them to recover more quickly, and enables them to do activities that may have been prevented while they were in pain. In the article it states, that with adequate pain management, it would in turn decrease the length of stay, lower readmission rates, earlier overall recovery, improved quality of life, and decrease the costs for the patient and within the healthcare system (Glowacki, 2015). Due to her condition worsening while in the hospital by developing pressure ulcers, this caused a longer stay for the patient which in turn, cost the hospital more money and prevented the patient from getting better to get discharged. One organization, like the American Pain Society, are helping to come up with better ways of educating healthcare professionals to assess a patient’s pain. Healthcare professionals need to be well educated with the following: recognizing patient’s perception of pain, previous experiences with pain, spiritual and religious beliefs, and sociocultural components (Glowacki, 2015). A change also needs to be implemented to improve pain assessment, and to prevent any lapse in administration of pain medication, which can in turn increase the pain or lead to uncontrolled pain. (Glowacki,

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