Pain Management Questions
Complementary and alternative therapies are helpful to treat different disease conditions. Which therapy involves the insertion of thin needles in a specific body region?
Acupuncture
A patient has had arthritic pain for 8 years. Which questions should the nurse ask to assess the patient's pain? Select all that apply.
"Which factors palliate your pain?" "How would you describe the pain?" "On a scale of 0-10, how would you rate the pain?"
Which patients would be appropriate for application of acupuncture therapy? Select all that apply.
A patient with back pain A patient with myofascial pain A patient with a migraine headache
A patient who has been using relaxation wants a better response. The nurse recommends the addition of biofeedback. What is the expected outcome related to using this additional modality?
A: To learn how to control some autonomic nervous system responses Biofeedback is a mind-body technique that teaches self-regulation and voluntary control over specific physiologic responses, including autonomic nervous system response. Control of body responses to pain is achieved via voluntary control over physiologic body activities, such as relieving muscle tension.
The nurse is caring for a patient who reports mild headache and fever. Which medication does the nurse expect the primary health care provider to recommend for this patient?
Acetaminophen (Tylenol
Drug administration would be considered palliative in which situation?
Answer: Pain management for a patient with terminal cancer Palliate means to alleviate without curing. Palliation therapy is typically used for patients with end-stage disease or illness to make them as comfortable as possible. An example is pain management for the terminally ill. Hormone replacement is used to prevent symptoms related to hormone deficiency. It may not be used as a curative therapy in all conditions. Hormone replacement is used as palliative therapy in menopausal women. Antibiotic therapy and iron supplementation are not typically palliative therapies; these are curative therapies.
When planning patient education, it is important to remember that patients with which diseases or disorders often find relief in complementary therapies?
Chronic back pain and arthritis
A patient who has been using relaxation wants a better response. The nurse recommends the addition of biofeedback. What is the expected outcome related to using this additional modality?
Incorrect1 To eat less food 2 To control diabetes 3 To live longer with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) Correct 4 To learn how to control some autonomic nervous system responses
A patient is in the first postoperative day following a nephrectomy. The patient is receiving morphine through a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) device for management of pain. The patient complains of pain in the shoulders. A nurse understands that it is a referred pain. What explanation should the nurse give to the patient regarding the referred pain?
It is a pain that is sensed at a site away from its actual origin or pathology
The nurse is instructed to give a massage to a patient who has body aches. The patient has a history of angina and deep vein thrombosis. Which area, if massaged, can lead to complications in the patient?
Leg muscles
The nurse understands that providing holistic care includes treating:
Mind-body-spirit of patients and their families
The nurse is assessing a patient who had been administered morphine for pain relief. The nurse finds that the patient's respiratory rate is 5 breaths/minute. Which drug would be the most helpful in reversing this adverse effect?
Naloxone (Narcan)
While assessing pain, the nurse asks the patient, "What does your pain feel like?" The patient says, "I have numbness and a tingling sensation interspersed with shooting pain." Which type of pain does the nurse infer from the patient's response?
Neuropathic pain
Which type of pain does a patient experience after undergoing minor surgery?
Nociceptive pain
A patient has had arthritic pain for 8 years. The patient develops septic collection in the knee joints and undergoes surgery to treat it. The patient is receiving morphine through a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) device for the management of pain. What is the advantage of PCA that the nurse should teach the patient?
PCA allows self-administration of analgesics
Drug administration would be considered palliative in which situation?
Pain management for a patient with terminal cance
Energy therapies are used to treat various disease conditions and diminish pain. Which energy therapy involves hand placement to correct or balance energy fields?
Reiki therapy
The nurse is caring for a patient who is receiving intravenous (IV) administration of patient-controlled narcotic analgesia. What condition does the nurse monitor to ensure the patient's safety?
Respiratory depression
A patient with bronchial carcinoma reports constipation for the past 2 months. The patient is on meperidine (Demerol) and ibuprofen (Advil) for pain relief for the past 6 months. The patient is also taking metformin and captopril (Capoten) for the past 10 years. What could be the most probable reason for constipation in the patient?
Side effect of opioid
A patient practices relaxation therapy to reduce pain. Which other therapy does the nurse suggest to help the patient obtain good results?
The combination of relaxation therapy and imagery is helpful for the patient to reduce pain. Relaxation therapy has a calming effect on the mind. This therapy coupled with imagery therapy helps to distract the patient away from pain and emphasizes the positive aspect of the imagery. Tai chi, Pilates, and healing touch are not as helpful as imagery in this situation. Tai chi is helpful for stimulating the immune system and maintaining external and internal balance. Pilates is helpful for improving voluntary control of the muscles. Chiropractic medicine involves manipulating the spinal column. It includes physiotherapy and diet therapy.
The nurse assesses that a patient is experiencing phantom pain. What is the most likely cause?
The patient has an amputated extremity
After assessing a patient's pain level using the numeric rating scale, the nurse documents the score as 5. What does the nurse interpret from this score?
The patient has moderate pain A numeric rating scale is a 10-point pain scale used to verbally assess the intensity of pain. A score of 4 to 6 indicates that the patient has moderate pain. A score of 0 indicates that the patient is relaxed and comfortable without any pain. A score from 1 to 3 indicates mild pain, and a score of 7 to 10 indicates severe pain. STUDY TIP: Moderate pain is in the Middle (4 to 6) of the numeric scale (0 to 10).
The patient rates his pain as a 6 on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain. The patient's wife says that he can't be in that much pain since he has been sleeping for 30 minutes. Which is the most accurate resource for assessing the pain?
The patient's report of pain is the best method for assessing the pain.
A postoperative patient is currently asleep; therefore, the nurse knows that:
The sedative administered may have helped him sleep, but assessment of pain is still needed
A patient with cancer is administered 60 mg oral morphine/day for chronic pain. The response for this dose is decreasing after repeated administration. The patient now needs to increase the dose of the morphine to achieve adequate pain control. What is this phenomenon called?
Tolerance In patients with chronic pain, if the dose of the drug for pain relief needs to be increased over time to achieve the same effect, the condition is called tolerance. There is no craving for the drug in tolerance. In case of addiction, the patient craves the drug and uses the drug compulsively despite knowing that it is harmful. In pseudoaddiction, the patient seeks many primary health care providers for pain medications to get adequate pain relief. Physical dependence is a state in which the patient develops withdrawal symptoms on stopping the drug abruptly.
Which pain therapy involves the application of low-intensity current via skin electrodes in order to relieve pain?
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is a type of neurosurgical pain therapy that consists of a small pocket-sized machine that has two electrodes and a battery. These electrodes, when connected to the skin, interfere with the transmission of pain impulses from the nerve fibers to the brain, thereby reducing the perception of the pain. A cordotomy is a surgical procedure that involves disabling the pain-conducting tracts in the spinal cord, thereby reducing the perception of severe or chronic pain. A sympathectomy is a surgical dissection in which the sympathetic ganglions conducting pain impulses are removed, thereby reducing the perception of pain. Spinal cord stimulation involves the implantation of a device into the epidural space that exerts pulsed electrical signals to treat chronic neurologic pain.