Drug seeking patients?

Nurses Safety

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What do people think about the term drug-seeking patients? I guess I have a hard time with it because usually these people are complaining of pain and who are we to judge whether they are or are not in pain. On the other hand, though, they are usually patients who are hospitalized frequently but may not have any medical reason to be there besides pain. What are your thoughts?

Specializes in Critical Care Nursing AKA ICU.

like one physician told me, "we are not here to fix their addictions on this admission, just give it to them" and really if the patient says there pain is 10 out 10 and their BP can take it, give it to them, it will make your day 10x more easy. there is no point in argueing with patients. remember happy patient will always give you a happy nurse. :)

The worst hours of my life occurred in the hospital following a fall and subsequent hip fracture. Felt fine and dandy after the hip replacement and the effects of the epidural lingered. Was told I couldn't have a pca because my pressure was too low. I was permitted to have mso4 injectionsi every 3 hours which did nothing to lessen the most excrutiating pain of my life. I swear they were water shots. As I chewed my pillow and cried not one nurse came to my rescue. You could hear other ortho post ops crying allnight. A nurse friend of mine came up and the freind insisted the nurse call up the surgeon and he changed the order to pills. At 6 am I finally experienced relief. Was my nurse diverting? Why didn't the other nurses care? Did they have cold dead hearts, were they afraid to bother the Doc? I shudder to think of that hellasish unit and those rotten uncaring people working there.

So the point is, I as a nurse make absolutely no judgements when a patient complains of pain. I pick up the phone and call if a patient is telling me they hurt. I don't care if they are frequent fliers. I chose to promote comfort to the best of my ability. Maybe 9 out of ten are addicts. It doesn't matter and I am not a moraly superior being to make the judgements.

Specializes in Rehab, Neuro, Travel Nurse, Home Care.

I recently had a issue at work and hopfully somebody here can help me with this. I had a pt with CVA that has a history of opioid abuse. He's on methadone maintenance and the only prn pain meds ordered for him is Tylenol. His affected side is contracted and Baclofen (the lowest dose) is ordered for that. I can hear him moaning when he doesn't know I'm near his room. I called the dr about this and they do not want to give him anything else because of his addiction history. This has been going on for 4 nights and I feel so bad for him. I give him Tylenol around the clock and he tells me thank you for trying to help. I recently spoke with my manager about this and she is going to talk to his Dr.

The point of this is that I think pain should be treated. This pt is undermedicated and is obviously in a great deal of pain. His bp is also very high.

When you have a patient complaining of "chronic shoulder pain" and "ohhhh I can't move my arms" but as soon as you walk out of the room you see them moving their arms like if nothing happened without even wincing. I start to believe them less.

Specializes in Peds, PICU, NICU, CICU, ICU, M/S, OHS....

If the doctor has ordered the medications, I'll give them. Now, if they have a RR of 6 and no pupils, that is another story. Narcotic pain medications have been over prescribed for decades and a lot of people who have chronic medical problems have chronic pain. I'd like to think that the doctors who admit these patients know them way better than I do and I tend to trust their judgement.

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