Pain Management Essay

Poorly managed pain has a number of undesirable physical and psychological consequences in children (Rennick et al, 2002) which can lead to short and long term effect on the nervous system (Sarpell, 2006). For orthopaedic patients, the consequences of poorly managed acute and postoperative pain can be quite significant both short and long terms (Lellan, 2004; Saxe et al, 2001). Orthopaedic studies have shown that the short term effect of poorly managed pain includes slower recovery, longer hospital stay, risk of developing an infection, delay in wound healing and a delay in resumption of normal life activities for the child (Joshi and Ogunnaike,2005). Patient- F was slower to mobilise and recover from her bilateral osteotomy due difficulty in moving her legs, this causes an increased stress response, resulting in an increased inflammatory process …show more content…
A successful pain management in children involves the recognition and assessment of pain followed by safe and appropriate treatment as children perceive pain and have right to adequate pain relief (NSFC, 2003; WHO, 1998). A multimodal approach to pain relief should be adopted, incorporating both pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to effectively management children pain post- orthopaedic surgery (Dullman et al,2009). For future admission patients-F pain could be better managed with continue Patient Control Analgesic (PCA) with background and bolus that could give her control over her pain. For future, children nurse attitudes and knowledge levels will need to be improved to ensure more positive attitudes in order to manage children 's pain effectively and multidimensionality and this will require nurses to be trained in