The challenge of caring for patients in pain: from the nurse’s perspective

Abstract

The findings can stimulate nurses to reflect critically on their current pain management practice. By identifying their strengths as well as their limitations, they can improve their knowledge and performance on their own, or else request more education, training and support. Since nurses' clinical decisions are constantly moulded and stimulated by multiple patterns of knowledge, educators in pain management should focus not only on theoretical but also on personal and ethical knowledge.

Ethical dilemmas in nursing: An integrative review

“…Another recurrent theme was related to organisational constraints (Ahern & McDonald, ; Barlem et al., ; Blondal & Halldorsdottir, ; Cooper et al., ; de Carvalho & Lunardi, ; DeWolf Bosek, ; Ganz & Berkovitz, ; Gaudine & Thorne, ; Jackson et al., ; Pavlish et al., ; Silén et al., , ; Wadensten et al., ). For example, staffing shortages that did not allow nurses to give the best care often led to ethical dilemmas as nurses tried to determine what they could omit or which patients needed the most care.…”

“…Related to both end of life and honesty, pain issues and pain management emerged (Blasszauer & Palfi, ; Blondal & Halldorsdottir, ; Chaves & Massarollo, ; de Carvalho & Lunardi, ; Ferrell et al., ; Rejeh et al., ). While there is no question that end‐of‐life pain should be aggressively treated, the discussion by Rejeh et al.…”

“…The most frequently cited ethical dilemmas were related to end-oflife issues and this prevalence of end-of-life issues is not surprising given that technological advances continue to extend life. The issues cited included communication about prognosis, inadequate palliation, questions of potential healing and futility (Blasszauer & Palfi, 2005;Blondal & Halldorsdottir, 2009;Chiu et al, 2009;de Carvalho & Lunardi, 2009;DeWolf Bosek, 2009;Eriksson, Andersson, Olsson, Milberg, & Friedrichsen, 2014;Fernandes & Moreira, 2013;Harris, 2002;Jackson et al, 2010;Kinoshita, 2007;Pavlish, Brown-Saltzman, Jakel, & Rounkle, 2012;Shorideh et al, 2012;Sil en, Tang, & Ahlstr€ om, 2009;Wadensten et al, 2008). Nurses are frequently confronted with situations where they believe dying is not being handled with sufficient attention to comfort or when further treatment is futile.…”

Knowledge and attitudes of Jordanian nursing students toward children’s pain assessment and management: A cross-sectional study

“…Failing to properly assess and manage a child's pain will impact the physical and psychosocial dimensions of the child and his family. For example, patients with pain may experience real distress, [49,50] which may compromise the quality of care nurses offer. [51] Therefore, preparing nursing students and providing them with the necessary pain management assessment knowledge should be on the top of nursing faculties' priorities.…”

Hospitalized patients’ vs. nurses’ assessments of pain intensity and barriers to pain management

“…Nurses play a crucial role in pain management, because they are the main observer of pain and discomfort in patients as they provide direct patient care 24 hr a day (Zhang et al, 2008). The majority of nurses operate as advocate for their patients when it comes to pain and pain management (Blondal & Halldorsdottir, 2009;Ware, Bruckenthal, Davis, & O'Conner-Von 2011). Therefore, to provide adequate pain management, accurate assessment of pain intensity by nurses is important.…”