Pain Screening
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FOR EFFECTIVE PAIN MANAGEMENT, INVOLVE YOUR PHYSICIANS
If you can do only one thing to improve your facility's pain management program, it should be this: Involve your physicians in the assessment and documentation of pain. Experience shows that when physicians are actively involved in this first assessment step, all the other steps--treatment, reassessment, ongoing monitoring--follow. Physician participation, apparently, sets high expectations for pain management among other nursing home staff. With the stage set, the work gets done.
A note to nurses:
Before you call a physician to report a resident in pain, gather patient information that the physician will likely ask for. This preliminary work will speed the treatment process and bring relief to the resident faster. Information needed includes the resident's:
- Age
- Blood pressure range
- Pulse range
- All current medications
- Active medical diagnoses
- Patterns of pain and analgesic use, especially "as needed," or PRN, use
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