pain and the non-verbal person
My project is to be about assessing pain in those who cannot verbalise their pain, in critical care settings (because that’s where I work) but I expect to draw on work done in other areas too. We take for granted that everyone from I don’t know, toddlers up can verbalise their pain. At the same time we know it’s not true. Think of the sedated, ventilated person in ITU, the person with advanced dementia, the person struggling with expressive dysphasia post stroke, the person with a non-invasive ventilation (NIV) mask strapped to their face, you can think of more I’m sure.
I have an interest in all those examples above. NIV and to a lesser extent fully ventilated patients are common in my work place. With NIV not only does the mask have to be very tight fitting to be effective, the set up we use in my unit is incredibly noisy. The poor patient has no chance of being heard. My Grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease and for the last three or four years could not speak at all really. She would repeat sounds over and over again like a child in reception class practicing phonics, it seemed she would forget what she was saying as she was saying it, unable to finish even a simple word. Dysphasia takes me back to my first nursing job, as an auxilliary on a stroke rehabilitation unit. Dysphasia is frustrating, both for the person with it and for whoever is trying to communicate with them, the all round delight on breaking through and achieving understanding is reward for the persistence and patience needed on all sides.
How frightening it must be, to be in pain and not be able to tell anyone, to tell those who could stop it. The occasional reports in the media, of people who end up awake but paralysed and unable to do anything during surgery, offer a (sensationalised) glimpse into what that must be like. And that’s the point really. Good, accurate assessment of pain in those who can’t tell us about it will hopefully reduce the amount of pain they suffer and all that goes along with it.
Why ‘Assessing Pain’?
So why is this here?
Well … I’m a nurse, currently writing the dissertation for my MSc on pain assessment, and I just wanted to somewhere to discuss pain assessment, the process of writing a dissertation and to share what I find.
So comment and let me know why you’re here reading it!
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
Assessing Pain 