Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing 14e (Hinkle 2017) - Preoperative Nursing Management Related

Review Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing 14e (Hinkle 2017) - Preoperative Nursing Management related questions and content

The nurse is caring for a patient in the postoperative period following an abdominal hysterectomy. The patient states, I dont want to use my pain meds because theyll make me dependent and I wont get better as fast. Which response is most important when explaining the use of pain medication?

  • A. You will need the pain medication for at least 1 week to help in your recovery. What do you mean you feel you wont get better faster?
  • B. Pain medication will help to decrease your pain and increase your ability to breath. Dependency is a risk with pain medication, but you are young and wont have any problems
  • C. Pain medication can be given by mouth to prevent the risk of dependency that you are worried about. The pain medication has not been shown to affect your risk of a slowed recovery
  • D. You will move more easily and heal more quickly with decreased pain. Dependence only occurs when it is administered for an extended period of time
Correct Answer: D

Rationale: Postoperatively, medications are administered to relieve pain and maintain comfort without increasing the risk of inadequate air exchange. In the responses by the nurse, (response D) addresses the patients concerns about drug dependency and the nurses need to increase the patients ability to move and recover from surgery. The other responses offer incorrect information, such as increasing the patients ability to breathe or specifying the time needed to take the medication. Opioids will cause respiratory depression.