Blogs

December 1, 2011 - No Pain, All Gain!

Dec 01, 2011 by Marc Strode, CEO
Folks,
I'm not clinical. I'm married to a clinician and I've surrounded myself around you guys for 14 years, and it's been a very happy 14 years. Not being clinical, maybe I oversimplify things in the clinical world that maybe I don't fully understand all the facets to. So, I've always wondered why any patient would stay "in pain" too long while sitting in a hospital bed or exam room. Afterall, isn't making someone pain free at the foundation of what we do? I'm very happy that VVRMC on our inpatient bedded units have gone 4 straight months (July - Oct) in the 1st quartile nation-wide in regards to Controlling Pain. That is super. We've slipped a little bit on the preliminary November data to 2nd quartile, but hopefully we'll bounce back to the "dark green" on our scorecard.

Pain is hard to figure, and we all have different pain thresholds so it's tough for me to sit here and really "get" how much your pain is just based on what you are telling me I suppose. One of our patients is here today visiting with our Nurse Council and telling his story in regards to Pain Management, or lack of. He had a pretty bad experience over a long weekend where he spent nearly 72 hours with us in excrutiating pain. And this is a big dude with a high pain threshold. So we are not perfect and we can always get better. The good thing about his ordeal is that after visiting with us on it so we could figure out how we could educate and coach those involved on that particular case, he agreed to come tell his story to our nurse leadership. I'm big on having our patients talk to us about their experience. It's personal. It extends that relationship. I think it means more than just hearing it from Vicky or me. I'm glad he is here and I know that we will learn from his words and his story.

If you are so lucky as to be one of those of us right in the throws of managing pain, let's do everything we can to do it well and do it quickly.  Let's address pain management the exact way we would want someone to help us if we were in pain--kindly and quickly!  And if you ever find yourself in a situation where you know the right thing to do but it's out of your control.  Maybe you are trying to manage that pain but the doctor isn't responding for whatever reason.  You have support.  Ask for help.  Your boss, the house supervisor, the administror on call, the CNO, the CEO....we have your back!  Let's do what is right. 

In the ED it's probably even harder to manage pain for lots of different reasons.  The ED has its run of frequent flyer "pain drug seekers"......we know who they are.  And unfortunately these people who try and milk the system probably get in our way of managing the legitamite pain next door so to speak.  We are already discussing pain management with our new ED doctors, and I suspect you will see the advent of pain protocols and standing orders around pain management in our ED before too long.  I think that will be a very good thing.

Remember, no pain...all gain!

Keep the Spirit,
Marc