Opioids for cancer pain

[jsmarthaler]

For an evidence based practice project for my BSN at the University of Wisconsin- Green bay I uploaded a short powerpoint project discussing benefits of choosing the best opioid for cancer related pain. Also a brief review of a research study evaluating different opioids. Feel free to respond with your opinions of what you think works best for your patients and why.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Nicely done....is there a reason you are sharing these? Is this a requirement of your program?

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Slide 4: "affected", not "effected".

Otherwise, yes. Whatever is most effective for each individual patient is used to treat pain. I would emphasize that this varies widely by patient and cancer type. We've had some patients who absolutely had to have dilaudid. Others didn't experience any relief without Percocet. Others still needed Neurontin or a muscle relaxer to effectively treat their pain. Often times, you start with known therapies and go until you find something that works.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I'm not sure I understand why patients receiving rads/chemo were excluded. Also, agree c PP: fix the grammatical error on slide 4.

In OP oncology and hospice, we didn't use methadone d/t it being difficult to titrate.

I was doing the RN-> BSN completion program c UWGB. Nice program; had to drop out d/t my own cancer dx. Good luck!

[darlink]

We prefer methadone in our hospice for several reasons. It's a small easy to take pill that can be crushed. It is long acting (most long acting opioids can't be crushed) It helps nerve pain. It's cheap.