Acute Pain Management

Adequate pain management begins with a very good assessment of psychological as well as physiological expressions of pain. This enlightening lecture will discuss the principles of pain management with regards to different pain mechanisms, appropriate assessment tools, and multimodal nursing interventions for alleviating acute post-op pain.

Featuring—

Kimberly K. Hayes, MSN, BSN, RN-BC, CPAN
Clinical Nurse Educator, UW Medicine/Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA

Comments from Past Participants

"The speaker was very passionate about this subject and very entertaining to listen to and watch. I was reminded during the lecture how easy it is to make a judgement about a patient requesting pain medication, and how that affects my care of the patient."

"The information about pain pathways and how pain medications I use every day intervene within the pathways is something I don't think I ever learned in depth. It's helpful to understand, especially when multiple medications are ordered because they work on different aspects of the pain pathway."

Objectives for Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this activity, participants will be better able to apply principles/nursing interventions of pain management that:

1. Acknowledge the difference between acute and chronic pain.
2. Differentiate between nociceptive and neuropathic pain mechanisms.
3. Support individualized and accurate pain assessment.
4. Support the utilization of appropriate pain assessment tools.
5. Recognize the use of multimodal, pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions as necessary components in the pain management nursing plan of care.