Reducing Errors by Improving Pain Medication Knowledge Thesis Proposal

Reducing Errors by Improving Pain Medication Knowledge - Thesis Proposal ExampleTherefore, it is needful for the post-anesthesia c atomic number 18 unit adjudge to be familiar with thesemedications such that medication wrongful conducts or overdoses may be avoided. In order toprepare a foster to be adequate in the PACU, proper procedure should be reviewed withregards to these medications so that he or she is well-prepared to face challenges in chafe management, which include being subject to manage the control of pain with dilaudidand fentanyl, being able to alleviate loneliness or other psychological challenges of the patient and helping the family to be validating of the patient in the post-anesthesia care unit.Area IThe Problem and its Environmental Context The specific problem is that the subject of this study works in the Post-Anesthesia disturbance building block (PACU) at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. The Unit has a staff of 60 RNs who are certifi ed nurses at levels I, II, and III. At times the Unit will receive patients that have received medications for specific reasons or they have received pain medications for post-surgery purposes. Typically, the patients have received both fentanyl (a short-acting pain medication) and dilaudid (long-acting) pain medication. At times the anesthesiologist will not report when they gave the last dose of pain medication. The medication has been administered early in some cases, or lately in the case of the patient having been in the operating room. However, this information is documented on the anesthesia work sheet. The Unit receives the patient from the operating room (OR) in the PACU and the patient may screech or saying they are in pain. Also, at times they are not respiration very well at all and need stimulation, spontaneous...However, this information is documented on the anesthesia work sheet. The Unit receives the patient from the operating room (OR) in the PACU and the patien t may screaming or saying they are in pain. Also, at times they are not breathing very well at all and need stimulation, oral airways, nasal airways, and Narcan.Nurses tend to give a lot of dilaudid in five-minute increments per the anesthesia orders, not knowing it peaks in one hour. It is difficult to determine where patients are in the opioid cycle as they may be still sedated from anesthesia and not the pain meds. Thus, the patients may have too much dilaudid or fentanyl on board upon arrival to the PACU. Sometimes the best choice is to use the fentanyl-which is short-acting and has a peak time of 30 minutes and small amounts of the dilaudid. If a nurse gives a patient too much of either fentanyl or dilaudid, the patient may stop breathing or have complications which is considered a medication error and/or overdose. Managing pain medication in the PACU based on assessment is an art. It takes experience, great assessment skills, and knowing ones medications. Administering too muc h may slow the patients breathing down and narcan may be needed to be given.