Population Specific Pain Assessment & Management Protocol Essay

Population Specific Pain Assessment & Management Protocol - Essay Example These include: poor sleep, loss of appetite, decreased functioning, elevated levels of depression and anxiety and decreased quality of life (Twycross, 1994). The powerlessness and hopelessness expressed by patients experiencing moderate to severe pain is all too often mirrored by nurses who lack the appropriate knowledge and assessment skills to manage pain effectively (Clements and Cummings, 1991). Common barriers to effective pain management reported in the literature include: knowledge deficits; fear of addiction to opioid medication; and, lack of consistency in the systematic assessment and documentation of pain and the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. (McCaffery and Ferrell, 1997) Assessment is widely regarded in the literature as the cornerstone to effective pain management. Nurses spend more time with patients than any other member of the health care team and are thus in an optimal position to perform pain assessment. Through the integration of fundamental physiological knowledge, information on the patient's history and the comprehensive assessment of their pain, the nurse plays a major role in optimizing patient management. In our society, information gathering is viewed almost uniformly as a good thing. (It is the "information age," after all.) Nowhere is this truer than in medicine. For doctors, more information is always better. In the past, most of our information came from the patient. Now it increasingly comes from machines. Doctors like tests because we see them as objective and more reliable than our own subjective judgments. We also see tests as something tangible we can offer the patient at the end of a clinic visit. Patients like tests for the same reasons. Ordering a test validates their concerns and promises concrete information-a definitive diagnosis. Sometimes patients even perceive their care as substandard if they are not given some sort of test. While doctors and patients recognize that treatments may have side effects or lead to complications, both tend to view testing as something that can only help. The prevailing attitude seems to be it can't hurt just to gather a little information. Cancer, however, is a diagnosis made by examining human tissue under the microscope. And the only way to look at tissue under the microscope is to do a biopsy: cut a small piece of tissue and remove it from the body. A biopsy is a small operation, and like any operation, it can be disruptive and painful and can lead to complications. So it's not the kind of test you want to perform on everyone. The job of the cancer-screening test is to determine which patients should be biopsied. In other words, a screening test is a preliminary test. It is not a test to determine who has cancer; instead, it is a test to determine who should be tested further. Can a negative screening test be wrong The answer is almost certainly yes, although it is very hard to prove. That is because we do not biopsy people with negative screening tests. The only way we ever come to suspect that a negative screening test might have been wrong is when a new cancer becomes clinically obvious soon after a person has a negative test. Testing In The Real World In the real world, cancer testing is more complex. Test results aren't just positive or negative; often

Kids and reading to them Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Kids and reading to them - Essay Example Reading with the kids makes them feel on top of their game. By this, one would mean the consummate ease with which they bring to themselves an understanding of how life’s nuances would be, and how they would be able to tackle the intricacies of the times that are coming up for them. Reading with the kids is the need of the hour because it tells them where they have to grow and develop, and how they shall see the changing realms of life whilst dealing with them on a consistent basis. What is even more interesting is the fact that the children will know that they are being given the attention that they direly require within their midst, as this is a fact that has to see the light of the day. This paper discusses how reading with the kids helps them to grow and develop, and be an important part within this society. The reading element instills in the kids a sense of belongingness that they are bound to learn, analyze and hence understand how life shapes up, and how life’s different turns are handled in the most apt manner. Reading with the kids allows them to feel special; that they are being given the time and energies which shall bear rich fruit as far as their growth and development measures are concerned. What is even more interesting is the fact that the kids need to get in line with the changing norms of the time and for that they have to know what is happening in the world around them (Friedland, 2004). They must be acquainted with the varying norms and routines so that they can achieve results which are complete from all angles. What is even more important is the fact that the kids must adapt to change; and this change shall happen on an incremental basis – for their respective growth and developmental levels nonetheless. It is a well-known fact that the world appreciates if the kids read, study and learn, not only on their own but also with the help and guidance of their elders. Reading makes the kids go wild in their imagination. The y explore the world around them and learn how to implement the same in a practical form (Stewart, 2011). This is a positive undertaking and should always be understood within the relevant angles. Reading with kids allows the parents to comprehend how their kids are shaping up within the study domains and what strengths and weaknesses are within their folds. They would be able to cover up the grey areas that remain within a child’s fore and work upon the strengths to polish them further. It would also tell the parents that their children have some specific preferences as far as career adoption within the future domains is concerned. Hence there is an all-out effort and endeavor on the part of the parents to apprise the kids where they are falling and what they needed to do in order to move ahead further with the passage of time. This is so required because it will tackle the negatives to arise within the kids and keep them at bay with the up and coming issues which might hurt their professional growth and development, and not to forget the personal one as well. How the kids perceive the entire reading process is something that shall be understood properly. This is because the kids want to get acquainted with the changing needs of the time, and this could only be possible if they are on the right track as far as their study realms are concerned. When parents give them the attention the kids learn quickly. It is because the kids know that their parents love them and care for them in the most loving way possible. When they read along with their parents, they come to know the different ways through which a particular language is comprehended, as well as the ways and means through which grammatical and spelling issues are tackled (Demoulin, 2003). The parents teach them how to pronounce words and make use of sentences as are required. They tell them the meanings and definitions of certain words, as well as detail them regarding the sentence structures all the same. Moving ahead with the discussion at hand, the kids need the time of