Question

You are caring for a patient that has a high pain tolerance due to chronic pain and does not look like they are in pain. What would you do if they asked for more pain medication?

Please make an initial post by midweek, and respond to at least two other student's posts with substantial details that demonstrate an understanding of the concepts, and critical thinking. Remember that your posts must exhibit appropriate writing mechanics including using proper language, cordiality, and proper grammar and punctuation. If you refer to any outside sources or reference materials be sure to provide proper attribution and/or citation.

Answer 1

Every individual is different and unique, and when comes to the pain every individual has different pain tolerances and pain is very individual sensation and it is interpreted differently depending on so many variables, the patient pain threshold is not same as pain tolerance, pain threshold is when the patient notices pain when the stimulus has gone from unpleasant to painful , pain tolerance is how long the patient can handle the pain before it becomestoo much to handle, so as a nurse, we need to help patients manage pain by teaching them to recognize when they need pain relief and this is generally well below their pain threshold once the pain has reached this threshold it usually becomes more difficult to manage than if the pain was interrupted earlier.So in this patient who has high pain tolerance so we first assess by taking history then assessing the pain by different methods like pain scale or visual pain scale , PQRST ( palliation,Quality,region,severity scale,timing) pain assessment method, etc then after assessing the high pain tolerance then the patient is advised accordingly.