beetlebailey524

Like I said in the original post I did not know the specifics of the patients situation or the final outcome; I just saw the written order and questioned my preceptor and other nurses about it and wanted to know if they would follow through with this order. I have heard of this being done but had never seen it actually writen out on an order and placed in the patients chart! I know I personally would not give a placebo for anything unless the patient was aware of it and agreed to give it a try. I most definetly would not mislead a patient by giving NS or whatever else to trick away the pain; even if it worked, to me it is unethical-a lie is a lie. As a student and nurse extern I have heard many nurses complain about having to give pain medication to "frequent flyers" and others who were determined to be drug seekers. My thoughts on this are if they say they are in pain, they are in pain, if they have the medication ordered for this pain, and it is safe to give, give it. Yes it may be aggravating to get the call from so and so every 2,4, and 6 hours for the PRN pain med and they rate their pain a 10 while watching TV and eating Jello but how do I know what they feel and what determines their tolerance and pain relief. Addiction is a disease and the pain felt when it is not "fixed" is real. I have seen what goes on in surgery; having your stomach cut open, guts removed, probed through, cut in half, stapled together, stuffed back in and stomach stapled back up deserves some pain relief even 5 days post-op! Then we ask them to walk, turn, cough, deep breath 1 day post-op we know its for their own good but all they know is it HURTS like**** I do not think many nurses would argue with this but I will not be the nurse to pass judgement or the nurse to predict pain in any situation. Thanks for all the responses and opinions. I will consider them all when I write my paper on An Ethical Delimia I Encountered During Clinicals~it brought up some very interesting viewpoints.

She will be aware when I write the paper for her class:) Other students in my class have encountered the same thing. One girl said her preceptor actually gave a saline injection for pain relief to a patient in an ICU! It's amazing how nursing school does not prepare you for the "real world" of nursing. I have seen so many things we are taught not to do-I'm staying true to my beliefs and maintaining my integrity regardless. I have worked to hard!

I am an RN student who will graduate in May. I ran across a situation during my clinical the other day that I wanted to seek some experienced advice on. This was my 3rd or 4th day of clinical at this hospital so I was still getting oriented to everything and trying to familiarize myself with all the "policies and procedures." I do not have an instructor with me but my preceptor is great and always answers my questions but even she seemed to be at a loss of explanation for this one. The secretary for the floor asked my preceptor to try and decipher an order for a new med scribbled out on the pts chart so it could be ordered. It was determined to read "Placebo for pain PRN" and scanned to the pharmacy. So of course I had to ask my preceptor if this was normally done at this hospital and what exactly would be given to the patient. She did not seem to surprised by the order and said she had not ever had this ordered for any of her patients so she did not know what would be given. (she was acting as charge nurse so we had to view the chart) Being new and a student and not knowing the entire situation I did not say anything else to her but I did ask another nurse what her opinion of giving a placebo for pain was. She seemed surprised that this was actually written on an order and scanned to the pharmacy but also said she had never had this ordered for any of her patients before so she really did not know what to tell me. All I want to know is this something that goes on and nurses are doing? I would not give a placebo pain med to a patient, ordered or not. It is not honest and goes against all I have been taught in school about an RN being a patient advocate, practicing with fidelity and non-maleficence. Am I just being naive? If the patient were to find out they had been mislead and wanted to press charges against the MD, the hospital and the nurse wouldn't that qualify as an intentional tort on my part-as my instructor always says "a prudent nurse would have known otherwise!" I do not know if the order was ever carried out but I was told the doctor had discussed this with the patient's nurse. Whatever that meant? I have chosen to use this as an ethical dilemma I encountered during clinical to write a short paper on so any feedback would be appreciated, pro or con. Thanks.