Integrating Evidence-Based Practice and Ethical Considerations- Addressing Pain Management in Healthcare Facilities

Integrating Evidence-Based Practice and Ethical Considerations- Addressing Pain Management in Healthcare Facilities

Pain can be described as a signal to the nervous system that all is not well within the body or immediate environment. It can be described as a prick, tingle, sting, burn, or ache and is often characterized as being sharp or dull. Pain may be constant or colicky; that is, it comes and goes. Pain can also be described as either acute or chronic, depending on the duration that the pain lasts (Raja et al., 2020). Assessment and pain management are an essential part of any nursing practice. Pain assessment and management are critical in ensuring that the patient is comfortable. It also plays a key role in ensuring that the patient’s general well-being is improved, including the patient’s psychological and physical functioning. This paper aims to highlight the importance and relevance of pain at St. Francis Health Services, looking at possible solutions and analyzing both the pros and cons of the solutions provided. Our assignment writing help is at affordable prices to students of all academic levels and academic disciplines.

Importance and Relevance of Pain to Assigned Healthcare Environment

Pain management is critical in every human being’s life. Pain greatly hinders an individual’s general well-being. Pain greatly affects an individual’s overall health. Pain greatly impacts a person’s blood pressure, respiratory rate, and pulse rate. This greatly impacts an individual’s body, resulting in easy fatiguability, problems falling asleep, and alterations in appetite (Dahlhamer et al., 2018). These impacts are greater in the elderly. Pain management can be described as the careful use of treatments and other strategies to reduce pain and suffering and ensure comfort in a person’s life. The main aim of pain management is to improve the quality of a person’s life. It also plays a critical part in the improvement of an individual’s physical and mental well-being.

St. Francis Health Services is tasked with the duty of providing assisted living, senior housing and services, skilled nursing care, and community residential services to individuals who are both physically and mentally disadvantaged. As highlighted, pain management is critical in improving people’s general well-being. Effectively managing pain in these individuals will ensure that these people lead comfortable lives and have improved physical and mental health. Adequately dealing with pain greatly improves the quality of life led by the elderly in this institution. Pain can greatly hinder these people from enjoying their daily activities. It can also greatly impact their daily interactions, their mood, and generally their reasoning capacity. It is, therefore, critical to combat pain effectively.

It is estimated that the prevalence of pain among the elderly in nursing homes is approximately forty-three percent. The pain prevalence is higher in patients with severe dementia as compared to those with less severe dementia, with a ratio of twenty-seven percent to fifteen percent (Hemmingsson et al., 2018). Pain is frequently witnessed among the elderly and, in most instances, is often ignored and understudied. The high prevalence rates indicate the need to seriously address the issue of pain and look into possible solutions. St. Francis Health Services is therefore tasked with the great responsibility of assessing and adequately managing pain among its occupants.

Mission, Vision, and Values

The mission of St. Francis Health Services is to express Christ’s love by providing care that values every human life. The vision is to meet the challenges of today’s population by providing choices and creative alternatives in the delivery of healthcare services. The Board of Directors and staff are highly committed towards the achievement of both the mission and the vision through the delivery of the highest quality care, and ensuring staff members are dedicated and well-trained.

The St. Francis Health Services institution is founded on several core values. These values include integrity, commitment, respect, excellence, service, and stewardship. Integrity ensures that staff members stick to the highest possible principles and professional standards at all times. Commitment is essential in ensuring that the staff is fully dedicated to those that they serve and that they provide the highest quality care at all times.

Respect is another core value on which this institution is founded. Respect entails valuing each person’s life and treating each and every individual with both compassion and dignity. Excellence means that staff members are always aiming and working towards doing their best as they deliver care. Service entrails contribute to the well-being of each and every individual. Stewardship is the final core value upheld by St. Francis Health Services. Stewardship means that the institution properly and wisely manages all the resources entrusted to them by God.

All these values, mission, and vision greatly imply that the organization works towards improving the quality of care and ensuring human dignity and comfort are upheld at all times. As highlighted earlier, pain greatly affects the overall well-being of any person and reduces comfort. The mission clearly points out the need to express Christ’s love during the administration of care. Pain greatly induces discomfort and greatly undermines this mission.

The vision stresses the need to meet the challenges facing today’s population. Pain is one of the major challenges facing the elderly. Coming up with creative solutions to address the issue of pain among the elderly will not only meet the vision of offering solutions to challenges plaguing society but will also play a key role in improving the general health of the elderly while also ensuring that they live comfortably.

The values on which St. Francis Health Services are founded emphasize the need to provide the highest quality care while also ensuring that the highest form of dignity and respect is upheld for each individual. Staff are fully dedicated to ensuring that they offer the highest possible standard of care, do their best, and ensure patient comfort. Pain relief is a basic component of human dignity and a display of the highest form of respect. Pain management greatly ensures improved general well-being and comfort for patients. Addressing the issue of pain goes a long way in actualizing the principles and ideals that are upheld by St. Francis Health Services.

Aspects of Organizational Structure

An organizational structure can be described as a system that gives an outline of how certain activities are done with the overall aim of achieving goals that have been set by the institution. The outlined activities can comprise rules, roles, and responsibilities of staff members working within the organization (Liu et al., 2018). This organizational structure also plays a key role in the dissemination of information from one level to another within the organization, further enhancing efficiency.

A key organizational structure component critical in combating pain in this setting is staffing. Nursing staff plays a critical role in the delivery of health care. They work in collaboration with other healthcare providers as members of a multidisciplinary team that is tasked with the duty of providing the highest quality care to patients. An adequate number of nursing staff is critical in attaining the recommended nurse-to-patient ratio. This consequently translates to more time with each patient by the nurse and improved quality of care. The nurse is also able to quickly pick out any pain and swiftly address it. Swift and adequate pain management translates to the improved well-being of patients and improved comfort levels among the patients.

The introduction of the pain management decision support system (PM-DSS) is believed to be critical and a possible solution that will address the complex challenges witnessed in the management of pain (Guenter et al., 2019). This is a subsystem of healthcare information systems that provides decision-support capabilities to healthcare professionals, including nurses, during the management of pain. The patient management decision support system (PM-DSS) is important as it aids nursing staff in the collection, storage, processing, displaying, and transmission of data concerning a patient’s pain management. This system ensures that data regarding an individual’s pain management is easily stored, retrieved, and transmitted, making it easier to access this information and consequently formulate ways to combat the pain.

Another key organizational structure change that is critical in addressing the issue of pain is an alteration in the organizational culture. The creation of an organizational culture that is supportive of all health practitioners in their use of all available therapeutic options to effectively manage pain is key to achieving success (Lee & Jang, 2020). Redesigning to support structures to aid in the pain management process may prove easy. However, altering the culture of the organization and the behavior of the healthcare practitioners may prove difficult. Organizational culture changes take time. Gradually, as the changes take place, an alteration in the results is observed. Comprehension of the current system is critical in changing the organizational culture. This is followed by the engagement of all key stakeholders to change the culture and consequently the practice.

The creation of a multidisciplinary committee is one of the critical steps in addressing the issue of pain. The committee will be tasked with monitoring and formulating best practices to improve pain management. Evaluation of the current pain management practices will be vital in the creation of practices aimed at improving the quality of care that patients receive. The committee can hold timely inspections to assess the rate of adoption of the new practices. The committee should, however, note that alterations happen slowly, and committee members should, therefore, not be discouraged by slow progress.

Solution

Comprehensive and thorough education regarding pain management is critical in preventing the undertreatment of pain and ensuring the highest quality care is provided to patients (Jefferies et al., 2018). Research indicates that pain is one of the most common presentations by a majority of patients. Inadequate pain management can result in severe physical and psychological patient outcomes that affect not only patients but their families as well. Inadequate management of pain can also greatly place healthcare practitioners at risk of legal lawsuits. The Joint Commission has clearly spelled out national guidelines that address standards for pain management and highlight the need to promptly address the issue of pain and manage it effectively. Healthcare practitioners, therefore, have to be well-informed and educated to handle pain effectively.

Undertreated pain or unrelieved pain greatly impacts an individual’s general well-being. Pain greatly influences the patient’s life. Patients experiencing pain may become depressed and anxious to the point of contemplating self-harm (Eichler et al., 2019). Pain hinders patients from carrying on with their day-to-day activities. Pain will not only affect them as individuals but will also greatly impact their day-to-day interactions with those around them. Pain will greatly influence a patient’s interaction with those around them. It will also go a long way in reducing the ability to maintain employment. A loss of interest in activities that one found pleasurable earlier on is also commonly witnessed when the patient experiences pain.

Pain not only results in psychological effects, as highlighted above. It is also responsible for severe physical effects. Pain often results in stress. Elevated stress levels will often result in the secretion of an excess number of hormones. Excessive release of these hormones has several effects on the body. It results in the destruction of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat (Taran et al., 2018). Glucose is poorly utilized, among other several harmful effects. This action, in combination with inflammatory processes, results in severe loss of weight, tachycardia, tachypnoea, fever, shock, and even death in severe instances. Unrelieved or undertreated pain results in prolonged stress reactions, greatly impacting the individual’s overall health and well-being.

Critical education of nursing staff and other health care practitioners regarding pain assessment and management is critical in ensuring that pain is effectively managed. Pain assessment is a vital component of providing adequate pain management. Several guidelines and recommendations exist that outline the constituents of effective pain assessment. Research indicates that the lack of proper and adequate pain assessment techniques was one of the barriers hindering effective pain control and management. Educating nurses regarding the most effective and appropriate techniques is critical in enhancing the assessment of pain and consequently formulating adequate management practices.

The education of health care practitioners, including nursing staff, is critical to effectively managing pain. It is vital for institutions to develop and maintain pain performance improvement plans. Healthcare institutions should develop interdisciplinary approaches that clearly outline the responsibilities of each and every team member in achieving adequate pain control. This includes educating nursing staff on the importance of formulating an individualized pain control plan with the help of the patient and other caregivers. Adequate systems that adequately point out and alert clinicians regarding poor pain management should also be effectively put in place.

Implementation of Solution

Education of nurses regarding pain management and assessment is critical in improving the overall quality of health care and, consequently, patient outcomes. Education emphasizes the importance of comprehending the patient’s health status so as to adequately initiate practices aimed at restoring, maintaining, and promoting health. Good education of nursing staff regarding the assessment and management of pain is key in improving patient outcomes (Coyne et al., 2018). Once the nursing staff is well educated, they will employ the most effective strategies aimed at assessing pain. The nurse will be able to pick up and diagnose pain during the early stages. This will enable the nurse to effectively initiate adequate management practices. Education of nurses clearly enables the nursing staff to make well-informed decisions all aimed at improving the patient’s current condition. The education of health care practitioners, including nursing staff, greatly equips them with the knowledge that they can pass on to their patients. Effectively educating patients creates a scenario where patients can make well-informed decisions regarding their health status, effectively cope with the condition, and take on greater responsibilities regarding their health status. Nursing staff education is critical in equipping nurses and other health care practitioners with modern pain assessment and management techniques. Frequent education of nurses ensures that the nurses embrace newer and more effective techniques and guidelines that are constantly being updated while doing away with outdated strategies. This greatly impacts the patient’s health. The use of more updated techniques and strategies means that the patient’s problem is effectively diagnosed and addressed. This results in improved overall health and well-being of patients.

Some of the challenges facing nursing education include the lack of adequate resources to effectively conduct nursing education. Inadequacy of both staff and other resources to conduct nursing education greatly reduces the rate of conducting such practices that have proven to be beneficial to nursing practice (Roy, 2018). Inadequate resources and staff mean that nursing education forums cannot be conducted as frequently as the institution would prefer. Another key hindrance to nursing staff education is the cost accompanying the holding of such forums. Nursing education can be done through forums such as seminars and retreats. These forums require the use of money to hire educators and pay for staff accommodation in instances where forums happen over a few days, among other expenses. This cost incurred by the institution greatly impacts the frequency with which such programs can be conducted. A limited number of educators is another hindrance to nursing staff education. The institution may be willing to conduct an education program; however, the limited number of educators means that the frequency of such programs will be greatly hindered. Another major challenge facing nursing education is the need to align the education provided with the practice environment, which is a great hindrance. Nursing education also faces the challenge of technological advancement (Williamson et al., 2018). Nursing staff who are technologically illiterate face challenges when it comes to education that entails technological advancement. The health care field has greatly advanced in terms of technology, resulting in an increased need for nursing staff to embrace technological advancement, which proves as a hindrance to some. These challenges greatly hinder patient education, which is critical in advancing the quality of health care provided, resulting in improved overall patient outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, pain is a common presentation in most patients. Pain greatly impacts the overall health and well-being of each and every individual. Pain has severe psychological and physical effects on patients (Domenichiello & Ramsden, 2019). The prevalence of pain is greater in the elderly, especially those diagnosed with severe forms of dementia. Nursing homes such as St. Francis Health Services, therefore, have a great role to play to ensure that they effectively diagnose and manage pain. An elaborate organizational structure in any institution greatly improves the efficiency of that institution and greatly improves the quality of care delivered. Nursing education is one of the ways that greatly improve the assessment and management of pain. Education is key in improving the overall quality of delivered care and consequently improving patient outcomes. Education is, however, faced with numerous challenges. Inadequate resources and increased cost of conducting teaching are some of the challenges facing nursing education. Strategies should be established to ensure that nursing education is conducted due to its numerous advantages.

References.

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Eichler, J., Rachinger-Adam, B., Kraft, E., & Azad, S. C. (2019). Effektivität von Biofeedback bei Patienten mit chronischem Rückenschmerz : Einfluss auf Schmerz, psychologische Faktoren und Stressmarker [Efficacy of biofeedback in patients with chronic low back pain : Impact on pain intensity, psychological factors and stress markers]. Schmerz (Berlin, Germany), 33(6), 539–548. Https://doi.org/10.1007/s00482-019-0393-z

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Students will identify a QI/Ethical issue within a facility(pain), research the best evidence-based practice related to the issue, and identify one solution using the evidence.

They will also evaluate how the student’s personal/professional philosophy and the organization’s values relate to this issue.