Sick of RNs not believing patients about pain

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I'm in my last semester of nursing and I'm sick of staff nurses not believing patients about their pain. I had a one day post-op patient who was in pain and asked for his percocet. I gave him his meds and the nurse freaked out on me. She said "he's going home in two days and he needs to deal with his pain and you don't need to medicate him every time he complains he's in pain" She demanded my instructors name because she was going to talk to her about my actions. He was only getting it q4hrs. I have never been yelled at before in clinicals by a nurse, they usually tell me I'm doing great. My instructor told me to blow it off, but it just makes me mad about how she treated me and the patient.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.
But if they have a doctor's order for dilaudid, who are you to judge?
Who am I to judge? I am the nurse who is tasked with dispensing the medication. Just because the order states that I MAY give 2 mg of dilaudid every 2 hours doesn't mean that I MUST give the medication... though I generally do.

I'm not simply a robot programmed to dispense medication. I'm expected to assess the patient - in their entirety - and then use my judgment to provide the best care possible. Paralyzing somebody's bowels simply because they're a narc junkie desperate for "relief" isn't providing them the best care possible.

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
I am big about making sure my patients are comfortable. I lived with horrible migraines for over 20 years and no one believed how bad my pain was.

Believe me this happens with LPNs in long term care too. "I didn't give him a pain pill because he didn't ask for it"..uh hello, he's comotose and grinding his teeth, what would you like him to say?

I'm not sure why some people have issues with proper pain management. It is getting better. Making it the 5th vital sign is helping. Education in nursing school and md school is helping. I'm glad you will be another that will make sure their patient is comfortable.

You and I sound a lot alike. I have been a nurse for 19 yrs and started having bouts of pancreatitis a few years before graduating. I was in the hospital for 2 plus weeks at a time, NPO, and on and on and I was MISERABLE!! Thankfully, none of my nurses gave me a lot of trouble about me asking for pain meds.

I started having migraines about 15 years ago, and had NO idea how judgemental some of the nurses were about me asking for pain meds even if my HR and BP were through the roof. My BP got as high as 240/150 at one time during on of my worst h/a complaints. I had to listen to one nurse stand outside my door that evening calling me a ----- druggie, that sort of thing. With a pressure that high, I ended up in ICU. This one nurse was convinced that I was "faking and putting on a show for the MD."

I try not to judge my patients and do what I can to get them comfortable. I try to educate patients about the fact that pain is easier to manage if they dont wait until they are an immense amount of pain before calling for their prn meds.

It is a little easier on the patient to follow post op instructions (to a certain extent) if they have had something for pain. Not saying they need 10 of MS, but something to make it a little easier, to assist them in T,C, deep breathing and I.S. use. Just my .02

Anne, RNC

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Bravo Anne, RNC! I just don't think nurses should be so "flip" in deciding who is worthy of pain relief and who isn't.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Since we don't have all the details on this patient's case we have to qualify our responses. That said, that nurse's reaction was completely inappropriate. I don't think the average 1 day post-op patient who is not a drug seeker and on po pain control is in danger of becoming an addict. If the patient is not a chronic pain patient, they probably will have their post-op pain resolved without alternatives to opioids such as imagery, deep breathing, etc.

Even if the patient (I'm totally speculating) was a drug-seeker who had a minor surgical procedure, the nurse going ballistic on a student and reporting her to her instructor is, well, off the charts nuts! That woman has issues! Your instructor should report the nurse to her boss!!

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They sound like very crappy nurses. You ALWAYS treat pain by taking the patients word for it. If they are abusing it, that's their problem but as nurses you have to administer the med

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Specializes in Operating Room, Long Term Care.

The patient which I refer to in the post had a total knee replacement. He had no drug history that I know of and also had chronic pain due to arthritis.

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Our first job as a nurse is to be our patient's advocate.

A person in a hospital in the year 2010 should NEVER have unnecessary pain. EVER.

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I remember being in the hospital when I was 13 weeks pregnant, doctors had no idea what was wrong with me. I had been vomitting for a day fever up to 103. They gave me 600mg of ibuprofen every 3 hours to keep my fever down. When my new night shift nurse came in I called her in because I could tell my fever was going up, my pain became worse my body ached all over. But she said it was only 99.5 so we should wait another half hour to see how I feel. In 30 minutes I called her back and my fever was up to 103 again. She seemed shocked and ran out of the room to get meds. It took another hour for my temp to go down to 101. I wish she would have listened to me. I was scared, in pain, they had the infectious disease control come in and all I asked for was ibuprofen. Four days later they found out it was a kidney infection. That was 7 years ago and I still remember that nurse.

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Specializes in Holistic and Aesthetic Medicine.

I didn't really understand pain until I had kidney stones. Before that, I had taken lortab once. It made me sleep for 4+ hours. When I had a kidney stone, my doctor was going to write for percocet and I talked him down to lortab. Then he was going to write 10mg and I talked him down to 5 because I was worried about oversedation and addictiveness.

Boy was I wrong. I let myself get so far behind the pain curve that I was in trouble. When I was in pain and took it, it didn't even make me sleepy at all. I felt absolutely no effect from it.

I told my doctor later that next time (and I pray that there will never be a next time), I'd remember that he is the doctor and I am the patient.

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