The Graduate Nurse

(Previously published) Identifying the problem: pain management Pain can be debilitating if not managed correctly, and yet that is what when nurses fail to lead and work with the interdisciplinary team to manage pain. Lack of proper pain control affects the patient as well as the staff, and can cost the facility money for continuous readmission. For this reason, nurses must understand pain and pain management, and know how to work with other disciplines to achieve this goal. Knowledge of pain and pain management In biology we learned that pain receptors, or nociceptors, are sensory receptors within the nervous system that detects injury to the body (Starr, Evers, & Starr, 2009). Damage can occur from different sources, but the body’s response to the injury is the same, inflammation. If injury occurs for a short duration, because the damaging agent is removed, the inflammatory response is acute and intense (Tortora, Funke, & Case, 2010). If the injury is continuous, be...