how much pain?

[the_negro_puppy]

I have a pretty liberal approach. Its difficult to get some patients pain free though, particularly with he limited drugs we have.

I find there is a bit of a cultural attitude towards pain here, whereby some Medics deem certain injuries and conditions worthy of pain management and others not.

I.E someone reporting 6-7/10 back pain. "its just back pain / no analgesia". Where if the patient had 6-7/10 abdo pain they would give morphine.

Same with simple fractured wrist etc.

That being said if every patient tells you they have a 10/10 toothache, doesn't mean they should be getting IV morphine either. The number scale is only one small and pretty unreliable tool. I try try match it with the patients presentation (guarding/BP/Hr/sweating/fidgeting/how they are talking) as well as the hx of the incident

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

You have to have a way to put it into perspective for patients.

I say 0 is no pain and 10 pain would be me cutting there leg off with a chainsaw without numbing it.

Even the drug seekers pause and rethink the number they give

 

[NYMedic828]

You have to have a way to put it into perspective for patients.

I say 0 is no pain and 10 pain would be me cutting there leg off with a chainsaw without numbing it.

Even the drug seekers pause and rethink the number they give

For women I used to use childbirth as a reference, but then I realized half my patients have 9 kids :rofl:

 

[Shishkabob]

I say 0 is no pain and 10 pain would be me cutting there leg off with a chainsaw without numbing it.

Even the drug seekers pause and rethink the number they give

I make it quite clear "10 is being mauled alive by a bear" and people still say 11-100, and it annoys the hell out of me. It's like saying "infinity plus one".


You can't have more than the worst pain you ever felt, because then THAT would be the worst pain you've ever felt, and in turn, make that a 10. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp, yet a good portion of people still do.

 

[fast65]

I make it quite clear "10 is being mauled alive by a bear" and people still say 11-100, and it annoys the hell out of me. It's like saying "infinity plus one".


You can't have more than the worst pain you ever felt, because then THAT would be the worst pain you've ever felt, and in turn, make that a 10. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp, yet a good portion of people still do.

But...this one goes to 11.

 

[the_negro_puppy]

The number system is stupid and is rarely used properly by patients. People lie either to get narcs or to perhaps make their injury/pain seem worse to justify why they need an ambulance.

 

[Handsome Robb]

The number system is stupid and is rarely used properly by patients. People lie either to get narcs or to perhaps make their injury/pain seem worse to justify why they need an ambulance.

If numbers suck how about this?

 

[Aidey]

I prefer the number system to the silly frowny face cards. I've never understood using them on adults who can communicate.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Dammit I don't think my picture worked.

 

[Epi-do]

Too funny, Rob! It reminds me of this:

[youtube]CBhyskisVNM[/youtube]

 

[Handsome Robb]

Too funny, Rob! It reminds me of this:

[youtube]CBhyskisVNM[/youtube]

That is priceless. Thank you.

 

[nocoderob]

Hahaha, so true. And those damn metal airplanes, yikes!

 

[Tigger]

You have to have a way to put it into perspective for patients.

I say 0 is no pain and 10 pain would be me cutting there leg off with a chainsaw without numbing it.

Even the drug seekers pause and rethink the number they give

I dislike the numbers game. I have no idea how much getting my leg cut off would actually hurt (as an example). I cracked three vertebra hitting a tree skiing and it hurt a whole heck of a lot, more than anything else I had ever experienced. But in the back of my mind (that was not functioning all that well at that point) I figured that all things considered that it could have hurt more, after all I wasn't skewered or anything. So I told the ambulance crew and ED RN that it was "just a six." They still snowed the crap out of me.