Pain Assessment and Management

Wells, N., Pasero, C., & McCaffery, M. (2008). Improving the quality of care through pain assessment and management.
Studies found out that 80% of patients who have undergone surgery have been experiencing post-operative pain, with 11% to 20% experiencing severe pain. This poses a huge problem for most patients since unmanaged pain can affect not only the patients’ psychological and physiological state, but also his social relationships with other people (e.g. family members). However, despite the presence of drugs and guidelines to manage these types of pain, its presence in most settings has remained the same in decades. More specifically, this could be seen as a reflection of inadequate pain management by a lot of hospitals in the U.S.
In response to this, the authors of this study drew knowledge from both incidences of chronic and acute pain in order to provide an analysis of these poor management strategies and to provide alternative methods (e.g. education) that would help prevent under treatment of pain and its harmful effects.

This article employed dozens of different pieces of literature and studies that were focused in the field of pain management, and provided an in-depth analysis of the topic. These pieces of literature, in turn, have both studied the negative effects of poor management of pain and alternative methods in order to prevent postoperative pain and its risks.<...