Question

How would you go about accessing and reviewing information on current best practice for pain management?

Answer 1

Inadequately managed pain can lead to adverse physical and psychological patient results for individual patients and their families.

Pain must be assessed using a involved approach, with determination of the following:

• Onset: Mechanism of injury or etiology of pain, if identifiable

• Location/Distribution

• Duration

• Course or Temporal Pattern

• Character & Quality of the pain

• Aggravating/Provoking factors

• Alleviating factors

• Associated symptoms

• Severity: Intensity or impact on function, sleep, mood etc

Pain is often classified as acute or chronic. Acute pain, such as postoperative pain, subsides as healing takes place. Chronic pain is persistent and is subdivided into cancer-related pain and nonmalignant pain, such as arthritis, low-back pain, and peripheral neuropathy.

Precise and systematic pain assessment is required to make the correct diagnosis and determine the most efficacious treatment plan for patients presenting with pain.

Evidence indicates that higher levels of pain and depression are linked to poor satisfaction with care in ambulatory settings with the emergence of transparent health care, report cards for hospitals are becoming more frequent, and performance on pain management is likely to be one of the measure reported.