How to write a Post-Surgical Pain Management essay

How to write a Post-Surgical Pain Management essay

Post-surgical post-operative pain management is significant for nurses and patients following a surgical procedure.  Effective management of this pain improves the health and recovery of the patient.  Increasing the use of evidence supports the practice of post-surgical pain management. The task will provide a purpose statement background and significance of the projects. Additionally, it will give a PICOT formatted clinical question focusing on post-surgical post-operative pain management.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of the project is to analyze how multimodal approaches to pain management effectively manage post-operative pain and the health outcome of patients. Post-operative pain can be acute or chronic.  A patient experiences acute pain immediately after a surgical operation. Chronic pain can last for more than three months. The focus of healthcare providers is to promote the use of effective pain management approaches to patients to improve their health and wellbeing. The goal of the project is to analyze the various multimodal approaches to pain management.

Background

Multimodal pain management is a method of pain management that uses a combination of various groups of medicines for pain medication.  The most commonly combined medication group include opioids, local anesthetics, and acetaminophen (Mandava et al., 2021).  Using different drugs with a different mode of action is the key underlying principle of multimodal analgesia.

Research strongly indicates that this treatment approach improves the effect of analgesia to a significant extent due to the synergistic effect of different drug classes. Additionally, the dosage of certain individual drugs can be reduced, which lowers the risks for serious adverse effects(Brooks et al., 2017). This may also reduce the risk of developing dependence on certain opioid drugs. Another study indicated that using a multimodal treatment approach, as opposed to morphine alone, significantly relieves chronic pain following surgery.

The project will compare the multimodal modal with the three-step ladder model.  The three-step ladder model was developed previously for cancer management but has become extensively used in other conditions, including post-surgery (Anekar & Cascella, 2020).  The model had a success of 80-90 but predisposes patients to various adverse drug reactions. The three-step ladder model is based on first utilizing mild analgesics agents to moderate and finally to the strong analgesic agents.  These agents are administered without prefixed dosage at regular intervals.  The first step of treatment begins with non-opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the management of mild pain.     If the pain persists, it will be classified as moderate pain, and therapy with mild opioids begins. Mild opioid agents include tramadol, codeine, or a combination of the 2.  Finally, if the pain persists, the pain is classified as severe pain. Commonly in surgical pain, the pain is likely to be severe. In severe pain, strong opioids will be used to manage the pain. This model differs from the multimodal due to the potential for increased adverse effects.

    Significance

The significance of the project is to indicate the effectiveness of using a multimodal analgesic approach as opposed to other treatment approaches.  Numerous research articles prove that the approach is effective in managing pain postoperatively. This project will be useful to nurses in numerous ways. Firstly, physicians and other healthcare practitioners will be able to pain relief by targeting multiple nociceptive pathways.  This will increases the likelihood of pain relief in patients post-surgery. Therefore nurses will be able to shift from other pain management models to a personalized premodal approach for personal management of pain(UUnnithan & Chidgey, 2021).  Secondly, the nurses and other healthcare providers will understand the concept behind multimodal pain management treatment.  Understanding the model will enable them to understand the indications and dosage of various medications for enhanced pain relief. Thirdly, the model also promotes the use of other non-pharmacological techniques and pharmacological approaches to increase the success of treatment. Non-pharmacological pain management includes the use of music therapy, yoga, aromatherapy, and psychotherapy(Adesoye & Duncan, 2017). Therefore medical practitioners will holistically manage the pain and provide their patients with personalized therapy. Finally, the therapy will help healthcare practitioners to reduce the problematic case of opioid dependency. This is because the therapy utilizes opioid therapy in reduced dosages reducing their euphoric effects.

PICOT Question Formulation

In the PICO statement, P is the type of patient who focuses on your clinical question. The focus of the project is on post-operative patients. I symbolize the intervention. It entails the intervention different from the standard of care.  In this case, the new intervention is the use of a multimodal pain management model. C symbolizes comparison.  In this case, the comparison intervention is the use of a three-step ladder model. O symbolizes the outcome. In this case, the outcome will be relieved of pain. It is how one would know if the intervention worked or not. The tools that will be used to measure pain include 1-10 pain rating scale.  When using the multimodal pain management model, the pain is likely to be less than 5. T is the time of implementation of the model. For this case, it will be three weeks.

Picot Question

In post-operative patients, does the implementation of multimodal approach of pain management compared to three-step ladder model effectively reduce pain as evidenced by a rating of less than five within the first three weeks of treatment?

References

Adesoye, A., & Duncan, N. (2017). Acute pain management in patients with opioid tolerance. US Pharmacist, 42(3), 28-32.

Anekar, A. A., & Cascella, M. (2020). WHO Analgesic ladder. StatPearls [Internet].

Brooks, E., Freter, S. H., Bowles, S. K., & Amirault, D. (2017). Multimodal pain management in older elective arthroplasty patients. Geriatric orthopedic surgery & rehabilitation, 8(3), 151-154.

Mandava, N. K., Sethi, P. M., Routman, H. D., Liddy, N., Haidamous, G., & Denard, P. J. (2021). Opioid requirement after rotator cuff repair is low with a multimodal approach to pain. Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 30(7), e399-e408.

Unnithan, A. S., & Chidgey, B. A. (2021). Pre-visit education on pain management options prior to the first clinic visit improves chronic pain patient satisfaction with proposed treatment plans. Pain Medicine.

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