Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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A descriptive correlational design was used in this study to examine nursing faculty knowledge and attitudes in pain management. Relationships between age, education level, pain management preparation, length of time practicing as a nurse, length of time teaching nursing, time teaching pain management in the classroom, taught pain guidelines in the classroom, and additional continuing education about pain management were explored. Ninety-six nursing faculty participated from 16 schools of nursing in one Midwestern U. ⋯ Faculty that reported practicing for longer periods of time felt less prepared in pain management than faculty who practiced for shorter periods of time. More continuing education in pain management may be needed for older nurses to meet the recommendations of the Institute of Medicines' report on relieving pain in the U. S.
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The population of individuals with severe and profound intellectual disabilities (ID) is extremely heterogeneous, and the unique pain-related behaviors of each individual might not be satisfactorily captured using a standardized checklist such as the Noncommunicating Children's Pain Checklist or the Revised Faces, Legs, Arms, Cry, and Consolability tools. There has been increasing appreciation of the importance of recognizing the idiosyncratic pain behaviors of these individuals. The investigators developed a tool, the Tailored Observational Pain Screen (TOPS), to facilitate recognition of pain in the individual who lacks verbal communication, based on caregivers' descriptions of the individual's unique pain-related behaviors. ⋯ The participants were the primary caregivers of 13 children with severe or profound ID and ongoing pain issues who were interviewed after they had used the TOPS for 6 weeks. The investigators identified themes from the interviews, including: using the TOPS to recognize and evaluate pain; using the TOPS to facilitate communication; limitations of the TOPS; and recommendations for its improvement. For clinical purposes, the TOPS shows promise as a tool for helping caregivers to share with others the ways that pain of these children can be detected.
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This study describes surgical colorectal cancer patients' pain levels, recovery activities, beliefs and expectations about pain, and satisfaction with pain management. A convenience sample of 50 adult inpatients who underwent colorectal surgery for cancer participated. Patients were administered the modified American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire on postoperative day 2 and asked to report on their status in the preceding 24 hours. ⋯ Patients with worst pain scores >7 reported interference with recovery activities, mainly general activity (mean 5.67) and walking ability (mean 5.15). These patients were likely to believe that "people can get addicted to pain medication easily" (mean 3.39 out of 5) and that "pain medication should be saved for cases where pain gets worse" (mean 3.20 out of 5). These beliefs could deter patients from seeking pain relief and may need to be identified and addressed along with expectations about pain in the preoperative nursing assessment.
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There are a number of studies that have evaluated the relationship between fibromyalgia (FM) and vitamin D deficiency with conflicting results. The aim of this study was to assess vitamin D deficiency in patients with FM and to evaluate the relationship with the common symptoms of FM and levels of serum vitamin D. Forty premenopausal female fibromyalgia patients and 40 age- and sex-matched control subjects were included in the study. ⋯ In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that deficiency of vitamin D is not more common in premenopausal female patients with FM than in control subjects without FM. However, the association between pain and vitamin D levels in FM patients emphasizes that hypovitaminosis of vitamin D in the FM syndrome may have an augmenting impact on pain intensity and functional status. Future studies are needed to show the effect of vitamin D supplementation in the reduction of pain intensity and disability in patients suffering from this chronic condition.