Basic nursing

There are various ways to manage pain efficiently and safely. However, most of the pain management strategies have their benefits as well as shortcomings. Therefore, it is important for one to seek guidance regarding ways to manage pain conditions considering that some of them may not include prescriptions of drugs. In developing a pain fact sheet, it is important to include various aspects of pain conditions. Firstly, the causes should be included, the leading causes of pain include medical conditions, injury as well as surgery. Moreover, the fact sheet should highlight the importance of seeking medical care if pain continues. The effects of acute and chronic pain on the body should also be highlighted. Further, information regarding pain-relieving medication should be emphasized including how the drugs work, and how they should be managed effectively.

According to Rosdahl and Kowaski (2008), perioperative care entails the time span that includes preparation for, the process of and recovery from surgery. Therefore preoperative nursing care includes all the activities before the surgery while postoperative care entails recovery from surgery. It is evident that the majority of preoperative as well as postoperative activities occur at home, thus the need for the teaching of the two and hence the importance of a checklist. Some of the questions that may appear in the preoperative patient checklist include:

Have all the consultations been completed?
Has the lab work been ordered and the results checked?
Did the physician complete imaging studies such as CXR, CT scan, and PET?
Is the biopsy report available?
Has the biopsy report been reviewed?
Notably, the postoperative care checklist may also include various questions such as;
Were the findings from the surgery discussed?
Has the review of pathology been done?
Do you take pulmonary exercises?
Have you paid attention to the discharge instructions?
What was the diagnosis or stage of disease?

A client may not comprehend some of the terms used in surgery. If this is the case, the checklist may also explain some of the important terms.

Reference
Rosdahl, C. B., & Kowalski, M. T. (Eds.). (2008). Textbook of basic nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.