Successful pain assessment and management
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Case – Jeannette Bright
Your patient, Mrs. Jeannette Bright, is an 85-year-old female who underwent knee replacement surgery two weeks ago. She came to your clinic for her follow-up visit and still has intense pain that she rates as an 8 on a scale from 0 to 10, even though
she is currently taking pain medication. You read in her chart that she also suffers from major depressive disorders and wonder if and how this might influence her perceptions of pain.
You come across some scientific literature while researching how to help the patient. You believe these articles will help you to further understand pain and how to help older patients who may have cognitive problems as well. Many patients you will encounter experience pain.
You come across some scientific literature while researching how to help the patient. You believe these articles will help you to further understand pain and how to help older patients who may have cognitive problems as well. Many patients you will encounter experience pain.
The first step to helping them is to educate yourself about the components of pain and why we feel it. You may wonder why many of the articles about pain have a qualitative design rather than a quantitative design. This encourages you to do some research on the principles of qualitative studies.