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P A I N
M A N A G E M E N T
Connie Casey, RN, CNOR, LHRM
FAMILIAR FACES Staffing your pain service with dedicated, specialized
nurses provides a continuum of care for returning patients.
through an IV port in the hand if it's needed, such as when patients'
pain presents major difficulties in positioning, or if multiple injections
will be administered. Sometimes needles can trigger a vagal response,
though, which can lead to rising or falling blood pressure. Instruct
your patients not to temporarily discontinue their prescription medications before their appointments, but to keep taking them without
interruption, especially blood pressure and cardiac meds.
Keeping cases moving
Pain management injections are short cases. We ask patients to arrive
30 minutes before their procedures, which take about 15 minutes, then
we monitor them for about 30 minutes before discharge. Our physicians can deliver 4 injections in an hour. On an average pain management schedule, we'll see about 10 to 12 patients. On a busy day, that
number may be as high as 18 or 19. (If your pain business is really
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