Originally Posted by Blackcat99
I am enjoying my first week of orientation this week at hospice. I have noticed that patients have 4-5 different prn morphine orders. Morphine long acting, short-acting and oramorph I think it's called. morphine 10 mg, 30 mg, 100 mg etc. Which morphine order have you found to be the most effective for pain? Thanks
I work on a floor where we often get hospice patients or have patients that are being referred to hospice. We many times have people on multiple pain meds because that's what they require to have any quality of life at all.
Usually they have some base long-acting pain med...it varies from patient to patient because each patient is different. The most common we are seeing are Duragesic patches and Oxycontin.
The shorter acting are supposed to be for more acute pain that may occur. Such as prior to PT, wound care, etc. Some patients require pain meds prior to eating--especially pancreatic cancer pts.
Anyway, I probably haven't been much help at all...it just seems that each patient has to have their own regimen because they are all so different. We recently had a patient on 13mg Dilaudid/hour via PCA because that was what he required to just be able to sit up in the bed/sleep/etc--he was not in the least sedated by that level of medication.
Would you like to comment?
