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Course: Fundamentals of Nursing�Topic: Nurse’s Role in Pain Management: Part 2

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Module Goals

Learners will be able to:

  • Identify non-pharmacological pain management.
  • Identify information for client education/counseling on pain management at home.

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Swarm et al., 2010

Pain likely to be relieved or function improved with physical, cognitive interventional modalities.

  • Physical Modalities:
    • Bed, bath or walking support
    • Positioning instructions
    • Physical therapy
    • Massage
    • Heat /Ice
    • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
    • Acupuncture/ Acupressure
    • Ultrasonic stimulation

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

  • Massage:
    • Involves manipulation of the body's soft tissue using various manual techniques and the application of pressure and traction.
    • Increase well-being through the reduction of stress and anxiety levels, and thus may contribute to pain control.
  • Reflexology:
    • Use of manual pressure applied to specific areas of the feet, hands or ears which relieves stress and bring about physiological changes and thereby reduction in pain perception.

Singh & Chaturvedi, 2015

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Singh & Chaturvedi, 2015

  • Acupuncture
    • A scientific treatment method that assist the body in restoring its balance by means of stimulating some special points on the body with needles.
    • Is more effective in relieving joint pain and stiffness.
    • Also helps in preventing nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy.

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Singh & Chaturvedi,2015

  • Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)
    • The TENS unit delivers low-voltage electrical stimulation to leads which are placed over the skin on or near the painful sites.

Certain limitations of TENS therapy are:

    • Electrodes can not be placed on certain parts of the body, such as near eyes, on front of neck, open wounds or infections, near tumors, in pregnant women, or on genitals.
    • Contraindicated for people with pacemakers, implantable cardiac defibrillators.

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Swarm et. al., 2010

  • Cognitive Modalities:
    • Imagery/Hypnosis
    • Distraction training
    • Relaxation training
    • Active coping training
    • Graded task assignment
    • Cognitive behavioral training
    • Spiritual training

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Singh & Chaturvedi, 2015

  • Imagery:
    • In this the client is taught self-guided imagery.
    • The client is made to focus on a pleasant or distracting scene to attend to the sensation in the scene like sights, sounds, smell.
  • Hypnosis:
    • The therapist teach skills which helps the client relax.

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

  • Comprehensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:
    • This therapy emphasizes the importance of learning different coping skills like relaxation, imagery, self calming statements, problem solving.
    • The clients systematically learn and master the skills of coping pain.
    • The clients are encouraged to combine various coping skills to deal with daily challenges.

Singh & Chaturvedi, 2015

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Swarm et al., 2010

  • Common interventional strategies:
    • Regional infusion:
      • Epidural: easy to place large volume of opioids.
      • Intrathecal:easy to internalize to implanted pump for infusion of opioids and local anesthetics.
      • Regional plexus: for the infusion of local anesthetics, used to anesthetize single extremity.

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Swarm, et al., 2010

  • Common interventional strategies:
    • Percutaneous vertebroplasty:
      • It is an image-guided therapy in which a cement, a fast-setting polymer, is injected into a pathologic vertebral body.
      • Used for osteoporotic or malignant fractures to relieve pain and disability.

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Non-pharmacological Pain Management

Swarm, R., 2010

  • Neuro Destructive procedure:
    • Destroy nerves or nerve connections usually the sensitive nerves that transmit pain.
    • The destructive effect may be created using several different methods, one of which is surgical: the neurosurgeon looks for the nerve and cuts through it.

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What would the nurse do?

Miss Rai, 52 yrs old, has metastatic cancer and is experiencing moderate pain. She has been taking analgesics to relieve the pain. However, the pain is not well controlled. She is planning for non-pharmacological management of pain. What are the different physical modalities she can apply to alleviate her pain? Select all that apply.

  1. Massage
  2. TENS
  3. Hot/Cold compress
  4. Imagery

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Client and Family Education

Physiopedia, 2020

  • Client education has been defined as, "any set of planned activities designed to improve a client's health behaviours, health status, or both."

  • These activities help the client and family make sense of their pain and guide them towards effective, ongoing self-management.

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Client and Family Education

Message to be conveyed to the client and family are:

  • Potent analgesics should be taken only as prescribed. Do not self adjust dosage or frequency unless discuss with the doctor.
  • Morphine and morphine like drugs are used to relieve pain:
    • When these drugs are used to treat pain, addiction is rarely a problem
    • These are controlled substances that need to be properly safeguarded in the home.
    • These medication must be used with caution and should not be mixed with alcohol or illicit substances.

Swarm et al., 2010

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Client and Family Education

  • For educating the client and family the health professional should:
    • Assess the knowledge and literacy of the client and family to ensure the understanding of education.
  • Messages to be conveyed to the client and family are:
    • Relief of pain is medically important and there is no benefit suffering from pain.
    • Pain can be usually well controlled with pain medication.
      • For persistent pain taking analgesics on regular schedule will improve the pain control.
    • If the pain medication do not work, many alternatives are available.

warm et al., 2010

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Client and Family Education

Message to be conveyed to the client and family are:

  • Communication with healthcare provider is crucial:
    • Health care providers can not tell how much pain unless you tell them.
    • Health care providers want to know any problems that you think pain medication is causing.
    • Tell you health care providers if any difficulty getting the medication or concern about taking them.
    • Expect optimal management for pain and side effects. Inform clients that they have right to expect pain management as part of overall care.

Swarm et. al., 2010

Contact info: info@nursesinternational.org

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Client and Family Education

Message to be conveyed to the client and family are:

  • The following must be reviewed with each client and family and provided in written form:
    • The list of each medication prescribed.
    • A description of what each medication is for.
    • An instruction as to how and when to take each one.
    • A list of potential side effects and what to do if they occur.
    • A list of medication to be discontinued.
    • A list of phone number to reach the health care worker if problems happen.
    • A follow up plan.

Swarm et al., 2010

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Client and Family Education

Swarm et al., 2010

Message to be conveyed to the client and family are:

  • The client should call the healthcare worker if:
    • Has a problem taking medication.
    • New pain, change in pain or pain not relieved with medication.
    • Nausea and vomiting that prevent for eating.
    • Constipation and can not pass stool for 3 days.
    • Difficulty arousing the client form sleep at day time.
    • Confusion.

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Client and Family Education

Swarm et al., 2010

Message to be conveyed to the client and family are:

  • The health care worker needs to be familiar with the regulation pertaining to operation of machinery or vehicles while taking potentially sedating medicine and advice the client and family accordingly.

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What would the nurse do?

Mr Le, a 27 year-old client, is diagnosed with lumbar radiculopathy. The client's pain is controlled by an opioid medication and his condition is stable. His physician has planned to discharge him from the hospital. What are the common discharge instructions that need to be reviewed and given in a written form?

  1. A list of each medications prescribed
  2. A list of potential side effects and what to do if they occur
  3. A list of phone number to call back if any problem occur
  4. A follow up plan

Contact info: info@nursesinternational.org

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References:

  • Singh, P., & Chaturvedi, A. (2015). Complementary and alternative medicine in cancer pain management: a systematic review. Indian journal of palliative care, 21(1), 105–115. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4332115/

  • Swarm, R., Abernethy, A., Anghelescu, D. L., Benedetti, C., Blinderman, C. D., Boston, B., Cleeland, C., Coyle, N., deLeon-Casasola, O. A., Eilers, J. G., Ferrell, B., Janjan, N. A., Karver, S., Levy, M. H., Lynch, M., Moryl, N., Murphy, B. A., Nesbit, S. A., Oakes, L., Obbens, E. A., Paice, J. A., Rabow, M. W., Syrjala, K. L., Urba, S., & Weinstein, S. M. (2010). Adult Cancer Pain, Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network J Natl Compr Canc Netw, 8(9), 1046-1086. Retrieved Apr 19, 2021, from https://jnccn.org/view/journals/jnccn/8/9/article-p1046.xml

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Contact info: info@nursesinternational.org

© 2013-2026 Nurses International (NI) and the Academic Network. All rights reserved.