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Postoperative pain management in the hospital setting
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B.V. is a 42 year old male patient admitted for severe angina chest pain. He previously had coronary artery bypass surgery a month ago. His incision site from the surgery was dry, intact with no inflammation present. He currently was not on any pain medications upon admission. He tested positive for hepatitis C and was homeless. He had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and left hip replacement. He is currently taking medications for hypertension and diabetes through Medicare. When getting report on the patient, the nurse stated that the patient kept asking for pain medications every hour but didn’t look like he was in pain. He was in a comfortable position in bed while laughing and watching television. The previous nurse thought the patient just wanted pain medication since he is previous drug addict. This situation reminded me of what I learned in Medsurge about trusting your patient if they …show more content…
I wasn’t quite sure what to believe. I knew I wanted to assess the patient and speak with him first before jumping to conclusions. My preceptor and I went to go let the patient know we were going to be his nurses for the day. Once we entered and started doing our assessment on the patient, he seemed like he was fine. When I asked him to rate his pain on a scale of 1-10, he stated it was 10. I asked him where he was experiencing the pain, he stated it was where the incision site was (upper chest) and all over his body. He demanded the best pain medications we have immediately. Other than what he subjectively told us, he seemed okay. His vitals were normal, his blood work came back with nothing alarming and a urine culture was negative. He was a previous drug abuser in the past from the past medical report. I started to think he just wanted pain medication just to abuse them again. I do admit after assessing the patient, I did in fact jumped to conclusions. Was I starting to be biased towards my
At admission, Mollie’s main complaint was right hip pain. She was not oriented to person, place or time, responding with “I don’t know” to questions asked. While the emergency department nurse completed a physical assessment, Molly’s hospital record was retrieved. Molly was discharged from the hospital two weeks ago, having been admitted for dehydration. Her health history was significant for hypertension and diabetes. Her primary care provider and home health care information were included in Mollie’s hospital record, as was her daughter’s contact information. The emergency department performed an x ray to evaluate Mollie’s right hip pain and there was no evidence of a fracture. Per MD order, labs and samples were collected and processed: CBC-diff, CRP, hyperal, blood culture, prealbumin level and urinalysis. Molly was evaluated for sexual assault and the appropriate samples were gathered. The forensic nurse gently scraped material from underneath Mollie’s fingernails. Bruises were measured and age of each bruise was estimated by
Dr. Tagge, the lead surgeon, finally updated the family over two and a half hours later stating that Lewis did well even though he had to reposition the metal bar four times for correct placement (Kumar, 2008; Monk, 2002). Helen reported wondering if Dr. Tagge had realized how much Lewis’ chest depression had deepened since he last saw him a year ago in the office, especially considering he did not lay eyes on Lewis until he was under anesthesia the day of surgery (Kumar, 2008). In the recovery room, Lewis was conscious and alert with good vital signs, listing his pain as a three out of ten (Monk, 2002). Nurses and doctors in the recovery area charted that he had not produced any urine in his catheter despite intravenous hydration (Kumar, 2008; Monk, 2002). Epidural opioid analgesia was administered post-operatively for pain control, but was supplemented every six hours by intravenous Toradol (Ketorolac) (Kumar, 2008; Solidline Media,
I cared for a 76-year-old end-staged chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder patient who was admitted for respiratory distress. The doctor requested that my nurse and I get the family together for a family meeting. During the meeting, the doctor communicated to the patient and his family members that the patient will be palliative and no longer be in the ICU. The family members were concerned about the transfer of care to the medicine unit, what to expect from palliative care and other options for care. This scenario did not go well because the patient and family would have benefited from a palliative nurse with expertise, respiratory therapist to discuss other options, pharmacist about medication change if needed, social worker to help guide the family through end of life care for their father. In addition, there was no collaboration with interprofessionals prior to the family
Although I respect and trust nurses and doctors, I always carefully observe what is being done with myself or my family members. After watching Josie’s story and being in the process of becoming a medical assistant, I feel this story has given me an initiative to ensure patients and their families are kept safe. The generation we live in is technological, there are many resources for patients and families to utilize to educate themselves when it comes to medical conditions. Some people like to self-diagnose and it makes it harder for doctors and healthcare workers to work with those patients. This is when communication and active listening becomes especially important to work through what is fact and what is misplaced
The range of medications from anti-inflammatory to opioids is extreme, and have different effects on the human body. Medical professionals have to make the decision whether to give a patient a lower grade pain management drug or a higher grade drug, and they are the ones who have to determine how much pain the patient truly is in when most of a patient 's pain in unseen to the physical eye. “Pain as a presenting complaint accounts for up to 70% of emergency department visits, making it the most common reason to seek health care. Often, it is the only reason patients seek care,” and with this knowledge health care professional need to treat each patient equally in the sense that they are the emergency room or a physician 's office for a reason, and that reason is to relieve the pain they are in (American College of Emergency Physicians Online). The article from the American College of Emergency Physicians continues on to say that, “it is the duty of health care providers to relieve pain and suffering. Therefore, all physicians must overcome their personal barriers to proper analgesic administration,” this is in regards to medical professional who are bias toward specific patients, such as “frequent flyers” or even patients of certain class standing; no matter what their patient may look like or be like they must be treated equally and
The treatment priorities of the registered nurse upon admission to the emergency department are as follows; within the first 10 minutes of Mr. Bronson’s arrival to the emergency department begin a 12 lead ECG. Assess Mr. Bronson’s vitals heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and administer oxygen 2-4 liters via nasal cannula (Sen, B., McNab, A., & Burdess, C., 2009, p. 19). Assess any pre hospital medications, and if he has done cocaine in the last 24 hours. At this time, the nurse should assess Mr. Bronson’s pain quality, location, duration, radiation, and intensity. Timing of onset of current episode that brought him to the emergency room, any precipitating factors, and what relieves his chest pain.
He was an outpatient, who arrived at 8 am to get ready for his surgery. Feeling I was ecstatic and enthusiastic to get back into the field of work to do my clinical rotations. Although I was ready to have a new experience at the recovery unit, I was also extremely scared, because this unit was a specialized unit, where the patient needs vital care while recovering from anesthesia.
My colleague and I received an emergency call to reports of a female on the ground. Once on scene an intoxicated male stated that his wife is under investigation for “passing out episodes”. She was lying supine on the kitchen floor and did not respond to A.V.P.U. I measured and inserted a nasopharyngeal airway which was initially accepted by my patient. She then regained consciousness and stated, “Oh it’s happened again has it?” I removed the airway and asked my colleague to complete base line observations and ECG which were all within the normal range. During history taking my patient stated that she did not wish to travel to hospital. However each time my patient stood up she collapsed and we would have to intervene to protect her safety and dignity, whilst also trying to ascertain what was going on. During the unresponsive episodes we returned the patient to the stretcher where she spontaneously recovered and refused hospital treatment. I completed my patient report form to reflect the patient's decision and highlighted my concerns. The patient’s intoxicated husband then carried his wife back into the house.
It was a quiet and pleasant Saturday afternoon when I was doing my rotation at the surgical medical unit at Holy Cross Hospital. It’s time to get blood sugar levels from MM, a COPD patient. His BiPAP was scheduled to be removed before his discharge tomorrow. When I was checking the ID badge and gave brief explanation what I needed to do. The patient was relaxed, oriented and her monitor showed his SPO2 was 91, respiratory rate was 20. His grandchildren knocked the door and came in for a visit. I expected a good family time, however, the patient started constant breath-holding coughing and his SPO2 dropped to 76 quickly. With a pounding chest, the patient lost the consciousness. His grandchildren were scared and screaming,
It isn’t worth spending $54,000 to help save an intravenous drug user’s life, if this is likely to be a reoccurring problem. The issue is just going to occur again and spending money on the same issue is pointless. Everyone deserves to live and mistakes don’t determine someone’s worth, but if you understand the consequences that are faced when being a drug user, you wouldn’t do it over and over again. In the text from, “Heart Infections Spike as Injection-Drug Abuse Climbs: CDC; Typical endocarditis patient is white, young and from a rural area, report says” it states, “Endocarditis is a potentially fatal infection, according to the American Heart Association. And, it’s expensive to treat, with half of patients
In reviewing this case study, it is the writer’s opinion that poor communication between doctors treating this patient, limited patient assessment, provider bias/judgment, and inferior diagnostic procedures contributed to this adverse event.
Acute pain related to surgical procedure as evidence by, pt. stating pain level is 7 out of 10, and pt. grimacing with
In the case scenario 1, the nurse from post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) transferred a patient who undergone post-operative hip replacement. The PACU nurse didn’t give a proper handover to the ward nurse, as she only did a quick introduction about the patient without checking the orders and charts with ward nurse at patient’s bedside, she then rushed back. Later on, the patient was deteriorating with declined level of consciousness, dropped oxygen saturation. After the primary and head to toe assessment, the nurses identified that patient experienced Morphine overdose, as the order in the medication chart was different compared to the actual rate showed on the patient-controlled analgesia machine. The patient’s deterioration could have been avoided if the PACU nurse could give a structured and detailed handover to the ward nurse at the bedside. The ward nurse could also hold back the PACU nurse and require to check the orders and drug charts at patient’s beside with
I think that both issues could have resulted in patient harm, even if that was not the intended action. The results in this case deals with beneficence and nonmaleficence. This is the basic duty of a health care professional: to do good and avoid harm. Both of which were violated in this case. I feel that Dr. Strunk realized that the hospital’s policy was violated his morals and code of ethics. I believe that the hospital’s administration only looked out for themselves. Although no visible harm was done to the patient, the best course of action was to inform the patient of the mistake. One could argue no harm, no foul, but I believe that the hospital should consider the patient’s overall well-being. If the patient found out about the error down the road, the hospital may be in even more trouble.
Even though all nurse and health care professionals should treat their patients with caring, nonjudgmental, and professionally, but some staff are not doing what they supposed to do. A skill that I performed this week was very simple yet very important to my patient: provide caring to my patient without any judgement. Every time in the health care setting, I always provide good patient cares to my patients, but this time is little different. My patient was admitted to the hospital due to stab wound, he has a history to substance abuse: drug seeking behavior, alcohol, and a meth abuser. During the hands off report, my RN told me that this patient probably is very needed for pain meds because of his history and he probably will be very agitate because his substance abuse behavior. She kind of hinted that I don’t need to pay much attention to the patient. I appreciated my RN worn me with these information, but for me personally, I just wanted to take care my patient the way I have with all the other patients. As usual, I asked my patient about his pain, did he have any discomfort; little do I know, this simple care makes a big impact on my patient. At the end of my shift, he was tearing up in front of me and my RN and said “thank you very much for treating me a human being and not a person coming in for pain meds. The people in the emergency room give me the impression that I am looking for pain meds due