Advise regarding acute pain management

[nevevix]

Hello All,

I am just posting as I am looking for some advise. I am an RGN for almost 3 years - I persued a MSc by research straight after qualifying and will be finished this in a few months. My research was on postoperative pain management. I really like this area. However, when I qualified 3 years ago I could only get work in a small 15 bedded intellectual disability facility near my home- so I have no experience in the general setting. I am really interested In working my way up to be a CNS in acute pain. I am planning to move to the UK from Ireland in September for work as there is none here. My recruitment agency has said their is work in any specialty and they will take nurses with no experience in the area& I'm willing to learn anything. I was wondering what would be the beat area to work in so I can work my way up to CNS in acute pain. Some people here have advised : PACU/anaesthetics/recovery/ICU/surgical wards/theatre. I am just wondering which would be the most beneficial? Any help would be much appreciated!!

Thank you :-)

Nevevix

[llerkl, ADN]

My answer is based on practicing on the USA but some of the principles may apply......I think you need to get into a PACU situation, working with patients/ pain issues Also lots of CEU's are available online regarding acute pain and post op pain management. Typically only larger medical facilities have actual teams dedicated to acute pain management and they are anesthesiology based. You can consider pain management nursing certification, but you need a minimum amount of hours working with pain patients to even qualify to take the exam. So basically, congrats on getting the education, now you need to acquire the experience to compliment it.