Pain Management

1058 Words3 Pages

My patient is an eighty-one year old female experiencing pain after a fall, which led to a broken wrist and a laceration to her forehead. This acute pain has led to loss of appetite, decreased energy level, and disinterest. Before her fall, she had previous acute pain related to compression fractures in her spine. Her knowledge of pain management before her fall was insufficient. Teaching my patient how to manage her pain will hopefully lead to better health.
Teaching my patient how to maintain her pain would aid in improving her comfort level. Impaired comfort related to acute pain would be my top priority nursing diagnosis in teaching my patient. Improving her comfort level will also improve her rest patterns, as well as her appetite. Comfort can have a lot to do with other factors dealing with health. Along with her pharmalogical pain management, relieving her impaired comfort will promote improved pain management by means of nonpharmacological management of pain (Nurse’s Pocket Guide, 2013, p.212).
To accomplish learning about pain management there are goals and learning needs that will need to be met in order to obtain this. Firstly, she will need to understand pain and the quality of pain of which she is experiencing. According to the International Association for the Study of Pain and the American Pain Society pain is… “An unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Fundamentals of Nursing, 2011, p. 726).
Along with understanding what pain is, she will need to understand the quality of pain. Learning about the quality of pain will help her to communicate better when she is in pain. Numerous adjectives are used to express what qua...

... middle of paper ...

...ft on the affected area to avoid any further health problems.
In conclusion, I believe that pain is something that no one should have to live with. Interacting with my patient, I can see that pain is a major part of her daily life and activities. By teaching her the different methods I have provided in this teaching plan I believe it will help her live pain free and therefore improve her lifestyle and activity level.

Works Cited

Doenges, M. E., Moorhouse, M. F., & Murr, A. C. (2013). Nurse's Pocket Guide (13th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
Evidence-Based Practice: Managing Acute Pain. (2011, November 30). Retrieved December 1, 2013, from Elsevier website: http://www.confidenceconnected.com/connect/article/evidence-based_practice_managing_acute_pain/
Wilkinson, J. M. (2011). Fundamentals of Nursing (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.

Open Document