Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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To determine whether the elimination of extended release (ER) opioids in the multimodal medication regimen of total knee replacement (TKR) patients resulted in improved patient outcomes. ⋯ Sixty patients were reviewed with a mean age at 70 years for both the pre-protocol (n = 36) and post-protocol groups (n = 34). There was a reduction in antiemetic use, t(59) = 2.2, p = .03 and length of stay, t(58) = 1.0, p = .33, and more discharges to home than rehab, x2 = 60, p < .001. All patients received 30 tablets of only one opioid prescription upon discharge with no refill, either oxycodone-IR (82%, n = 49), hydromorphone (5%, n = 3), or tramadol (12%, n = 7). The project, aimed to reduce opioid overprescription and overconsumption, has the potential to improve prescribing practices, promoting patient safety and healthcare quality by supporting the current guidelines that recommend against using ER opioids for the study population.
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Continuous Ambulatory Delivery Device Use for Patients Managed by an Inpatient Palliative Care Team.
The use of Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) via a Continuous Ambulatory Delivery Device (CADD) is a common and effective means of pain and symptom management for hospitalized patients with a malignancy. Studies exploring the indications for starting such a device for hospitalized inpatients referred to inpatient palliative care teams are limited. ⋯ This initial study provides the Palliative Care Consult Team with information on the indications for the use of a CADD. The lack of universal access to a CADD in various areas of our hospital due to differences in departmental protocols may compromise good symptom management and patient safety. These results strengthen the argument that the existing hospital policy requires revamping to improve CADD access. A CADD has been shown to provide hospitalized patients, with a malignancy, with timely access to effective symptom management, and in turn, reducing their length of stay in hospital. These findings will help inform this organization's CADD policy and support the need to broaden access to this device.
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Frequency, ability to cope, and severity of pain; the genetic structure of the individual affects their emotional and cultural characteristics, beliefs, and personal characteristics. It is stated that pain beliefs are one of the factors affecting emotional pain control and approach to pain. ⋯ It was concluded that there was no relationship between the pain level and pain beliefs of patients with low pain in the postoperative period. Individuals experiencing postoperative pain believe that pain occurs due to the influence of both organic and psychological factors. For this reason, it is recommended factors that nurses who care for individuals experiencing postoperative pain provide care for both organic and psychological sources of pain.
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Pain is a nursing diagnosis. As such, it should be evaluated and recorded regularly. Nurses should possess a high level of pain management knowledge and a positive attitude toward pain, as these are the most important factors affecting pain control and management in children. ⋯ Mean posttest scores of pain knowledge and attitude and subdimensions of the nurses in the experimental group increased significantly, indicating that nurses' knowledge deficiencies in the realm of strong pediatric pain management can be overcome by education, and that their attitudes can be improved.
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To assess the matching and content validity of a pain quality pictogram tool with a Hmong community. ⋯ Findings provide insights for redesigning the selected pain pictogram tool to be used in clinical settings with LEP Hmong patients.