Episode 109 - Pain Management
Pain Management and Prescription Drugs
Another ‘Hot Topics’ in EMS is Prehospital Pain Management. I can not count the number of times that I have heard providers say “If it doesn’t hurt me, I am not giving them pain medicine”, or “if they don’t look like they hurt, I am not giving them pain medicine”. There are many other things that should be debunked, or dismissed as part of our assessment. Most medical conditions or injuries cause pain, and pain is often the marker that initiates the patient to seek care.
The role of providers is to help alleviate pain and provide comfort for the patient. This can be done in a number of ways to alleviate pain, but many providers are afraid of administering the medication or do not want to do the extra paperwork. While analgesic practices vary widely across the nation, I believe that it will be worth while to discuss the pathophysiology and physical need for pain management. The 5 or 6 different opiate receptor sites, why people become addicted, how other medications are often prescribed to begin weaning patients off of harsher narcotics, etc.
As a provider it was not until a few years ago that I began to truly understand the need and different aspects of pain relieve, why some people become addicted to narcotics and some do not. Analgesia is not equally provided to those in need, and this is a discussion that we need to put out there for the prehospital community to encourage them to examine their practice more closely.
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