Hi.
First let me say that I don't want this to end up as a debate over real pain or drug seeking. What I am looking for is reasons why there is such a suspicion of pain patients.
I am in nursing school, and am discouraged, disgusted and quite frankly angry at what I am seeing as the judgemental attitudes of some nurses. How dare a nurses try to decide who is in pain, or to what severity they are feeling pain.
Mind you,I am a chronic pain patient myself. You would never know it most of the time because I live with it all the time. This is a personal issue with me and I just don't get it. Heres the clincher, we are actually being taught how to recognize a drug seeker, and guess what...i have all the red flags of a drug seeker. My kidney stone patient also exhibited all the red flags, too...should I deny him pain meds as I am seeing some nurses do? Not actually denying, just being so busy it takes 2-3 hours to get him the meds.
So, could you tell me what constitutes a 'seeker" in some nurses minds/
I am seriously considering leaving the profession because of this. I am seeing this across the board, from the ED to a med surg floor, to PACU, for goodness sakes!
please help me understand this!
Please understand I am NOT trying to start a heated debate, I am just very, very stunned at what I am seeing.
K-