Pain Medication From Common Sense Perspective.

Every situation is individual. I have seen more undermedication than overmedication. Pain is still a mystery and a puzzle to many in the medical profession. Fear of addiction is rampant. I have seen a news show that reported that more people are getting addicted and are overdosing on over the counter medications. For people with legitimate medical problems, acute or chronic, we can and must do better. It is the 21st century. I think we should work on finding the best way to alleviate suffering.

You have posted so many generalizations in this article that I am finding it hard to take the information seriously.Charges of wholesale brainwashing and referring to medical folks as pill pushers does little to earn credibility.I also take issue with this statement: Let’s have a look at my patient who had “a little bit of pain” and rated it 8. I handle this situation according to common sense. I documented “4” and did not offer pain med.

I wouldn't call this common sense at all. I'm offended by your use of the Bible in this conspiracy theory you have, and that you are arrogant enough to think that somehow you know whether or not a person is in pain. I can guarantee you wouldn't be able to recognize it in me, even if I was really uncomfortable, and if you were my nurse and documented a 4 when I told you it was an 8, I'd be talking to your bosses in no time. I thought nursing was about patient centered compassion (what you call pill-pushing), not deciding that your patients are addicts too stupid to understand the pain scale.My least favorite part of this article:"We believe we are professionals but we do not know much about medications we give to our patients. It is even not our fault because nursing textbooks do not say anything about it. Probably because they do not want us to know the truth. They just want us to be pill pushers."Apparently, you slept through nursing school, because I can guarantee you that your teachers never ONCE told you to just shovel meds into your patients without understanding what you were giving them. As a practicing nurse, I find it disgusting that you weren't aware that opioids can cause constipation. I knew that before I even entered nursing school because it was beaten into our heads during pharmacology class! The rest of the RNs in the US don't need to go to Europe to figure that out because we actually paid attention in school, and know how to use a drug book now and then.Also, why don't you try proofreading your articles before posting them? I can understand a few mistakes here and there, but an article laced with obvious spelling and grammatical errors does not belong here. If you're not a native English speaker, have someone help you with your writing, so your article is easy to read. If we took the time to read this drivel, you should at least take the time to write it in a convincing manner.Sincerely,A Brainwashed Pill-PusherP.S. This post is most likely going to get deleted, since I'm being pretty harsh, but I want to post it, anyway. I think OP needs to think about his biased opinions more deeply, or at least hide them from plain sight. I hate to think that both of us are considered nurses, because I don't want to share my profession with people who have this sort of attitude.

Pain management is a HUGE issue for me. In 1986, when my preemie twins were born, one sustained many complications in the NICU. One of the issues was post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus, for which she received a ventriculostomy (exterior shunt). .the procedure was done without ANY anesthesia. The procedure was botched in a horrific way, causing her to have yet another brain bleed. At about that time, the CBS Evening News ran a segment about a courageous mother named Jill Lawson, whose premature son died after a PDA - also done without anesthesia. The belief at that time, was that preemies' brains were too underdeveloped to feel significant pain, and that general anesthesia was potentially too harmful. So surgeons and neonatologists were just going about inserting chest tubes, doing heart and brain surgery without properly medicating these infants. Of course, parents were not being told that their babies were being operated on without any anesthesia. . At about the time my twins turned a year old, I got medical records, and sure enough, our daughter too, was one of those unanesthetized babes. I just about came apart mentally thinking of the horrific pain she endured. Thankfully, this belief has begun to change. .When I decided to become a RN, one of the things I vowed, was never to allow a patient to suffer if it were in my power as a nurse, to prevent it. I've had to step in and intervene when my mother was dying of colon cancer this year - meds were being held because they didn't think she was in all that much pain - my mother was in no cognitive shape to use a verbal pain scale effectively, but her body language sure told a different story. Hospice, thankfully, agreed with me and ordered scheduled pain meds rather than PRN, as my mother could not effectively advocate for herself in assisted living. So. .as a RN, and more importantly, a mom and daughter who has seen family members who have been adversely affected by poor pain management, you darn right I'm going to be an advocate for people who need pain relief.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, tralalaRN! I, too, remember the days of docs saying that newborns couldn't feel pain the way older people did. It was horrifying then and it's horrifying now.I also cringe when I hear about narcs being withheld from people who are terminally ill because, "they might get addicted." First, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, people who are really having pain metabolize and react differently to opioids than those who do not. And second, who gives a flying flip if someone with three months to live becomes dependent on narcotics to have any quality of life in the time remaining.Many people, docs and nurses included, misunderstand the difference between a legitimate dependence (meds allow the patient to function better even though the doses seem scary) and addiction (meds lead to dysfunction and degeneration).At any rate, withholding needed medication is looked upon as a violation of patient rights by JCAHO and by enlightened facilities and caregivers. It just shouldn't be done.

Very misinformed and ignorant. NO ONE should have to suffer, and NO nurse is able to accurately assess someone else's pain. Period. Do we have those who abuse the system? Yup. But we cannot allow those people to hinder good care for those who really need it.

I'm sure had different types of nursing textbooks in school than the writer did! "And how do you like this statement from nursing textbooks, “Patient’s pain level is not what you think, it is what they report”. All people are different and react to pain differently. Patient can smile and still has pain 10/10. Give him narcotic to control his pain" My textbooks never advocated "give him narcotic to control his pain", but rather try non-pharmacologic methods first, and meds only as necessary.....a rather meandering article that was slightly offensive to me....I don't understand the need to drag religion into an article supposedly about the evils of medicating pain??

How dare you alter a patient's reported pain level to suit your own bizarre, paranoid beliefs. I would advise you to re-think your career path as instead of advocating for your patients, and thinking of their comfort and wellbeing, you are pushing your own misguided agenda. You should be ashamed.

This individual's often expressed beliefs elicit the same responses from other venues, such as the yahoo nursing groups he frequents.

Furthermore, it isn't your place, or mine, to dictate what is desirable during a person's last hours or days of life. The decision to forego pain control in favor of mental clarity is strictly up to the dying person.

"This statement is a brainwashing. Pain shock kills, so pain 10/10 kills. But our body has a protective mechanism. When you are in severe pain you may loose conscious. So if you lose conscious but still alive it means toy pain level is 9/10. Women in labor experience pain level 8/10 does not kill."Is English your first language? If you ever had any critical thinking skills, you've abandoned them for ignorance. What kind of nurse seeks to deny her patients relief of their pain and justifies it with Bible quotes?

"Terminally ill people need to have clear mind as long as possible to reconcile with God."I'm an atheist, so there goes your "theory".