Pain Management



Pain Management


Deborah L. Gentile

Barbara St. Marie





ROLE OF NURSES IN PAIN MANAGEMENT

The prevalence of pain, the disparities in treatment, the increase of vulnerable populations with pain, as well as understanding that when pain is persistent, it becomes a chronic disease, all relate to the importance of prevention or management of pain for individuals and populations. Pain has been deemed a public health challenge (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Nurses across all clinical settings are in a unique position to impact pain management. As a discipline, nurses have a tremendous opportunity to engage in the practice of pain management. The nurse’s role in pain management is broad, and the nursing process—assessment, diagnosis, outcomes identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation—is well suited for this patient population. Furthermore, the capacity of nurses to be an advocate, educator, change agent, and interprofessional collaborator gives nurses a noticeable advantage as they care for the patient in pain.

In addition to the skill sets mentioned above, a number of influencing factors shape the role of the nurse in pain management. Regulatory bodies, standards of care, practice guidelines, and institutional policies and procedures all impact the extent and manner in which nurses provide pain management. The responsibilities of all disciplines involved in
pain management are delineated in The Joint Commission (TJC) standards. TJC standards focus on health care provider orientation, education, patient rights, patient education, and postoperative care and contain wording specific to pain management (TJC, 2012). In recent years, evidence-based recommendations, guidelines, and position statements for pain management have been developed by such groups as the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Acute Pain Management (Horlocker et al., 2010), the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2011). Additionally, the scope and standards of practice for pain management nursing were developed in a joint venture involving ASPMN and the American Nurses Association (ANA) and apply to both the nurse generalist and the nurse specialist in pain management. Institutional policies and procedures guide nurses through definitions, responsibilities, assessment and management expectations, and educational requirements for pain management. Influencing factors change as pain management practice evolves and new knowledge becomes available.


Change Management and Quality Improvement

Even with the many advances in pain management strategies, pharmacology, technology, and techniques, pain continues to be poorly managed. Nurses play a key role in making and maintaining pain management as a strategic priority across all health care venues. The need to improve the quality of patient pain outcomes is imperative for the patient’s overall health. Box 20-1 identifies select physical and physiological harmful effects of unrelieved pain.




Furthermore, the quality of pain management impacts the public assessment of health care organizations. To that end, the nurse’s role as a change agent cannot be underestimated. Innovations in pain management have transformed the practice. It is important for nurses to understand basic change management strategies and the use of quality improvement methods in all practice settings.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) are a driving force for institutions to redesign pain management models of care. In the 1940s, Kurt Lewin developed a model for organizational change that remains relevant and widely used. He described three stages of change: (a) unfreeze, (b) change, and (c) refreeze (Burnes, 2004). If nurses understand and use these stages, they can develop a plan to manage each step of the pain management change process in their respective facilities. The first stage is vital to success in any change effort. It involves generating motivation for the change. It may seem obvious that a problem with effective pain management is the reason enough for change, but there are other factors that influence the stakeholders of any organization struggling with this issue.

The following steps will be valuable to “unfreeze” the way pain management is performed. First, the change should be data driven. The most convincing and least threatening motivator for change to occur in practice is accurate data. Second, align the change with organizational values and strategic goals. And third, identify resistance to change and take time to engage in discussion about fears while recognizing elements of past and current practices that are positive. A comprehensive communication plan about an improvement project or practice change is vital to success.

During Lewin’s second stage, “change,” health care providers begin to embrace the practice change. During this stage, the health care team learns new skills, understands principles around these new skills, and begins to see the positive impact on their patient outcomes and satisfaction. They recognize the personal and organizational benefit of the newly introduced practice. Some of these changes will be time sensitive, but also be aware that each person moves at his or her own pace in adopting practice change.

Lewin’s third stage or “refreezing” reflects adoption of the practice change and its maintenance. The data may begin to improve and provide evidence that supports the change. At this point, it is important that all components of the practice change are carried out in a consistent manner. Consistency will create a sense of stability around the change. A celebration of success is recommended to thank everyone involved in the change for their dedication in improving pain management (Bridges, 2009). Well-planned, clear communication throughout the change process is essential to the success of the change effort.

Quality improvement methods provide an operational model to guide improvement processes. One of the most widely used models is the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) framework developed by Langley, Nolan, and Nolan (1994). The PDSA cycle mirrors the stages of change described above (Figure 20-1). When the cycle is applied to pain management quality improvement projects, it provides a framework to guide design, measurement, implementation, and improvement of a change process. If the improvement project has multiple phases, a PDSA cycle is used to guide each phase. Batalden and Stoltz (1993) developed a worksheet of useful questions to consider when creating a PDSA cycle (Table 20-1).

Measurement and the need for data are identified in the processes of change and quality improvement. Quality measures or indicators related to pain and its management are a source of improvement opportunities. Pain management and the patient’s perceptions of pain management are some of the categories of quality indicators recommended for organizations to monitor. One quality indicator is a time indicator, such as the “median time to

pain management for long bone fracture” (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2011). Another example is the time in minutes that it takes from the moment that a patient enters the emergency department until the patient receives an oral or parenteral pain medication. Patient satisfaction with pain management is an example of another outcome quality indicator. Two questions that all acute care patients are asked after discharge are illustrated in Figure 20-2. These originated from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, initiated as a requirement for hospitals receiving Medicare reimbursement. These questions and others are publicly available for use. The results from patient surveys are also available and grouped at the hospital level. Reviewing results for the hospital or unit may provide opportunities for improvement.






FIGURE 20-1 Plan, Do, Study, Act Cycle. (Adapted from Langley, G., Nolan, K. M., & Nolan, T. W. (1994). The foundation of improvement. Quality Progress, 27, 81.)








TABLE 20-1 QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER FOR PLAN-DO-STUDY-ACT (PDSA) OR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESS

















Plan




  • Who is going to do what, by when, where, and how?



  • Is the “owner” of the process involved?



  • Which measures are needed to answer our questions and to identify there was an improvement?


Do




  • What have we learned from our planned pilot change and data collection?



  • What have we learned from unplanned information we collected?



  • Was the pilot change congruent with the plan?


Study




  • Was there an improvement?



  • Did the pilot change work better for all stakeholders or just some of them?



  • What did we learn about planning for our next change?


Act




  • Do we adapt the change? And repeat the PDSA?



  • Do we abandon this pilot change and try something else? And repeat the PDSA?



  • If the pilot change efforts are abandoned, what has been learned?



  • Do we keep this change?



  • If so, what should be standardized?



  • What training is needed to provide continuity?



  • How should continued monitoring be done?


Adapted from Batalden, P. B., & Stoltz, P. K. (1993). A Framework for the continual improvement of health care: Building and applying professional and improvement knowledge to test changes in daily work. Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement, 19, 446-447.



Staff Education

Interprofessional staff education encompasses all levels of licensed independent practitioners (LIPs), nursing, advanced practice nurses, and physician’s assistants. Throughout this chapter, we refer to this group of professionals collectively as physician/LIP, emphasizing the key requirements for quality pain management (Box 20-2). The term licensed independent practitioner originated with TJC and is used in standards for privileging and credentialing. According to TJC, an LIP is “any individual permitted by law and by the organization to provide care and services, without direction or supervision, within the scope of the individual’s license and consistent with individually granted clinical privileges.” When standards reference the term “licensed independent practitioner,” this language is not to be construed to limit the authority of a LIP to delegate tasks to other qualified health care personnel (e.g., physician/LIP’s assistants [PAs] and advanced practice registered nurses [APRNs]) to the
extent authorized by the state law or a state’s regulatory mechanism or federal guidelines and organizational policy” (Medscape, 2013).






FIGURE 20-2 Examples of pain management questions to assess patient perceptions of pain management from the HCAHPS survey. (From Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2013). HCAHPS: Patients’ Perspectives of Care Survey. http://www.hcahpsonline.org/files/HCAHPS%20V8.0%20Appendix%20A%20-%20HCAHPS%20Mail%20Survey%20Materials%20(English)%20March%202013.pdf)


To educate only nurses leads to frustration due to the inability to initiate change without challenging the health care team responsible for prescribing treatment. Such conflicts can become unpleasant. Education is an expensive process for institutions with limited resources. Developing self-learning packets for the interprofessional team may expedite access to necessary information involved with change. Interdisciplinary health care team education may also be accomplished through lectures, newsletters, or blogs accessed through e-mail.

To move pain management forward as a profession, a collaborative approach is needed. Pre- and postevaluation of the knowledge and attitudes of all disciplines regarding pain should be implemented within a predetermined time frame. Often, the projection of negative attitudes toward people in pain or with coexisting substance use disorder and pain can be changed through mentoring in real time. Patient education should coincide with staff education so that everyone has consistent and clear expectations of the options available.


Interprofessional Pain Management Teams

The multidimensional nature of pain requires an interprofessional approach to pain management. Many acute care facilities have a team of pain experts to consult and provide recommendations for challenging problems with pain. Team members represent a number of disciplines and may include such roles as pain resource nurses, pain clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, physicians/LIPs who are pain specialists, LIPs, pharmacists, pain psychologists, and addiction specialists. Patients with complex pain syndromes that involve pain with underlying pathophysiology comprise a combination of pain caused by tissue damage (nociceptive) and nerve damage (neuropathic) and may require the advanced knowledge and skills in pain management provided by an interprofessional pain team (Portenoy et al., 2006; Webster, 2008). Consultation by a pain team is also appropriate for treatment of refractory pain, comorbidities, high risk for complications, substance use disorder, or concurrent mental health conditions such as untreated depression or anxiety that pose barriers to effective pain management. There is consensus among pain management professionals that pain and mental health disorders cannot be treated as separate entities (ASPMN, 2012). The integration of a variety of pain management options requires the involvement of the interprofessional health care team (Box 20-3).




MECHANISMS OF PAIN

Classifying pain according to its underlying mechanism provides the interprofessional team a means to determine how the pain is transmitted and how to intervene. There are peripheral and central mechanisms of pain that transmit nociceptive and neuropathic pain signals. Nociceptive pain occurs when a normally functioning nervous system is alerted to tissue damage. Nociceptive pain serves as an alarm system to tell us that something is wrong and requires attention. Somatic pain is a type of nociceptive pain that originates in the skin, muscles, bone, or soft tissue. The character, intensity, and location of this type of pain are closely aligned with the type and extent of the injury (Arnstein, 2010). Another type of nociceptive pain is visceral pain. Visceral pain involves hollow and solid organs. It is more diffuse than somatosensory pain and can be referred to distant locations making it difficult for patients to clearly describe the exact pain location.

Neuropathic pain is related to damaged or malfunctioning nerves caused by disease, injury, or unknown reasons (Arnstein, 2010). Neuropathic pain may occur in the peripheral or central nervous systems. Peripheral neuropathy may be experienced by many people with diabetes. Someone with a spinal cord injury may experience central neuropathic pain. Not all patients who suffer nerve damage experience neuropathic pain. The mechanisms involved in this type of pain are very complex, and it is a difficult type of pain to manage.


PAIN MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE INFUSION NURSE


Opioids

The term opioid analgesics are preferred to other terms such as narcotics or opiates. Opioids are effective when they bind with particular opioid receptors in the body. This section addresses only the mu and kappa receptor agonists. The mu receptor is the most powerful opioid receptor and requires binding with opioids that have an affinity to mu such as morphine sulfate, hydromorphone, and fentanyl citrate. Examples of opioid analgesics with an affinity to the kappa receptor are nalbuphine and buprenorphine HCl (Buprenex®). When a person takes a mu agonist such as morphine and also takes a kappa agonist such as nalbuphine, nalbuphine will compete with morphine so that morphine is no longer able to create analgesia. Furthermore, if the patient is physically dependent on long-term mu agonist opioid therapy, and receives a kappa agonist, he or she may experience physical withdrawal.

Demerol, or meperidine hydrochloride, is an opioid analgesic and has been well documented as problematic by the American Pain Society (2008) and the U.S. Agency for Health
Care Policy and Research Acute Pain Guidelines. When a patient receives meperidine, the body creates a metabolite called normeperidine. As the administration of meperidine continues, the normeperidine accumulates, creating toxicity resulting in seizures (Latta, Ginsberg, & Barkin, 2002).

The route of administration should reflect careful consideration of optimal and timely response. Intramuscular injections are painful, making it necessary for the patient to endure pain before receiving relief. A common misconception is that opioid dosing by the IV route is equal to the IM route (American Pain Society, 2008).


SIDE EFFECTS

Side effects and complications associated with opioids may be found in Box 20-5. Opioid-induced sedation and respiratory depression are two of the most serious opioid-related adverse events. An expert consensus panel, at ASPMN, reviewed the scientific evidence and developed guidelines. Content of these guidelines includes assessment and monitoring practices for adult hospitalized patients receiving opioid analgesics for pain management. Interventions for patient care, education, and system-level changes should focus on promoting quality care and patient safety (Jarzyna et al., 2011).

Sedation is an expected and common adverse effect when beginning opioid therapy and when doses are increased (Pasero et al., 2011). Sedation precedes respiratory depression. The Pasero Opioid-induced Sedation Scale (POSS) is a valid and reliable instrument used to assess advancing sedation during opioid therapy. The POSS consists of five levels of sedation from sleep to somnolent with minimal or no response to verbal and physical stimulation. Assessment using the POSS is one element of monitoring patient safety during pain management with opioid analgesics. If the electronic medical record does not have POSS available for assessment, then the organization should explore having it added or devise a cue for nurses to document sedation. The assessment is simple, fast, and vital to the safety of the patient receiving opioids.

Unintended opioid-induced advancing sedation can result in respiratory depression. Respiratory depression has been defined as < 8 respirations per minute (Dahan, Aarts, & Smith, 2010). Clinically significant respiratory depression has been described as a decrease in the rate and depth of respirations from the patient’s baseline and not entirely based on
a specific number of respirations per minute (Pasero et al., 2011). Respiratory depression is caused by an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood, which communicates with the brain (medulla oblongata) to slow respirations until the carbon dioxide level returns to normal. All opioids can depress brain stem-regulated ventilation, producing a dose-dependent reduction in respiratory rate (Yaney, 1998).

Only gold members can continue reading. Log In or Register to continue

Stay updated, free articles. Join our Telegram channel

Jun 19, 2016 | Posted by in NURSING | Comments Off on Pain Management

Full access? Get Clinical Tree

Get Clinical Tree app for offline access