Nurse-initiated oral opioid pain protocol improves the quality of musculoskeletal pain management in the emergency department

Pain, due to a wide variety of underlying etiologies, is one of the most common patient complaints, representing up to 80 per cent of emergency department (ED) visits [1]. The early and effective management of acute pain is of critical importance in the short and the long term [2,3]. Although the importance of timely pain management in the ED has been acknowledged, it has also been recognized that there are barriers to effective pain relief, such as inadequate inter- and multidisciplinary communication, workload and attitude problems, lack of patient input, knowledge deficits, and misconceptions on the need for effective pain management [4 –7].

Source: International Emergency Nursing - July 7, 2018 Category: Nursing Authors: Sigalit Caspi, Ronit Meidan, Elad Peless, Ela Raizman Source Type: research