Homeostasis and pain management in patients with multisystem failure - Research Paper Example

?HOMEOSTASIS AND PAIN MANAGEMENT IN PATIENTS WITH MULTISYSTEM FAILURE. INSERT INSERT INSERT GRADE Old people are always prone to diseases. Across the world, the number of old people suffering from various diseases such as chronic diseases is on the rise day in day out (Porter, 2011). Just like other types of diseases, chronic diseases result to pain in most old people. Therefore, as the number of old people suffering from chronic diseases increases; the cases related to chronic pains in hospitals also increase. In addition, several old patients in hospitals experience multi system failures. There are several measures being put in place by health organizations to manage the pain experienced by the old generation as a result of multi system failures. Pain management is the practice by medical practitioners, nurse practitioners, physiotherapists and clinical nurse practitioners to reduce the pain or totally get rid of the pain that patients go through. Pain management is always done through the administration of medicine to the sick or injured patient (Hardy & Paul, 1997). This will help in reduction of pain in the patient. Homeostasis management is the practice of maintaining a stable and constant internal environment of a patient. This may involve maintaining constant body temperatures. Geriatric patients are often old people and they also undergo pain. This paper discusses expansively the pain management that can be administered to Mrs. Elli Baker, a 73-year-old geriatric patient who was transferred to an emergency room after collapsing. Assessment of Patient. The assessment of Mrs. Baker should include all the problems that she experienced. The assessment talks about her homeostasis, oxygenation and her level of pain. The assessment also includes the physical observations made on her, observations made through technology and in the laboratory. Mrs. Baker was on two medications: lisinopril and hydrochlorothiazide. These two medications often result to the collapsing of geriatric patients. It is these two medications that led to her collapse. Mrs. Baker had problems with her oxygenation. This can be as a result of diabetes that she had experienced previously. Her oxygenation problem can be solved by introducing arterial gases into her body. Her body temperature is also an issue of concern. Mrs. Baker collapsed in her backyard may be because she was up to some difficult tasks such as physical exercises that could have led to an increase in her temperature. Mrs. Baker was also dehydrated. She had past history of diabetes and this always involves having too much sugar in the body. This can later lead to dehydration in an individual. This could be solved by administering water into the circulation system of Mrs. Baker. Mrs. Baker experienced high level of pain. This was evident because, when talking to the nurse, she had problems responding and this may have been caused by the pain she was feeling. When observed, it was evident that Mrs. Baker was undergoing pain. This was because she tended to be uncomfortable in bed, she was grunting and she showed grimace on her face. This was a clear indication of the pain that she was in. She experienced hypertension and had respiratory problems. The cause of these could be seen by introducing her to an X-ray to observe any blockages in the arteries and veins and in the respiratory system. Technological Tools. In treating Mrs. Baker’s condition, various technological tools would be used. One of the tools that would be used in treating her is a stethoscope. A stethoscope is essential and would be utilized to know the rate or speed of her heartbeats. Mrs. Baker had respiratory problems and she collapsed at her backyard. Knowing the speed of her heartbeats will be essential since this will help in knowing the kind of activity she was doing before she collapsed. In case she was doing physical exercise, the stethoscope would read her fast heartbeats and this would help the medical practitioners in solving her problem. The other technological tool that would be utilized during her treatment is the X-ray machine. Mrs. Baker had respiratory problems. Use of the x-ray machine would help the medical practitioners to know whether there are any blockages in her respiratory system. This machine would benefit the patient because the doctors will know exactly where the blockages are in the respiratory system and solve them. Data Collection Prioritization. While treating Mrs. Baker, relevant important information should be obtained from her or any person present who accompanied her. The information was important was important since it would help the medical practitioners know how to treat her. Data collection was done through several ways. To begin with, samples of her blood were taken and tested to know the disease she was suffering from. The other method of data collection that was used was observation. She could be seen grunting and crying in agony and this was an observable evidence of the pain she was going through. During her treatment, questionnaires containing questions of the possible diseases she was suffering from and the possible ways of treating them were filled. The relatives who accompanied her to the emergency room were also interviewed on the previous health conditions of Mrs. Baker and what steps had been taken to resolve them. Pain Assessment Comparison. Ways of assessment of pain in a geriatric patient who is alert and conversant are very different from the ways of assessment of pain in a geriatric patient who is not alert. One way of doing assessment of pain in an alert geriatric patient is done in the form of a scale. This is a situation whereby the geriatric patient is given a particular scale. The scales are thereafter explained to the patient and the patient responds by giving a score. By so doing, a medial practitioner is able to assess the pain in his or her patient. However, this would prove a very difficult way of assessing pain in a geriatric patient who is not alert. This is because the patients do not have the ability to respond because of their unconscious condition. One of the ways of assessing the level of pain in an unconscious geriatric patient is by observing the behavior of the patient. When the patient turns over continuously in bed and grunts, this is a clear evidence of serious pain in the patient. The other way of assessing pain in unconscious geriatric patients is identifying the potential causes of pain. When a patient suffers from a burn or a fatal road accident, the medical practitioner attending to the patient is able to assess the level of pain that the patient is going through. Pain Management in a geriatric patient experiencing multisystem failure. Pain management in a geriatric patient experiencing multisystem failure is important because it helps to increase the ventilator functioning in a patient especially after a surgery (Waldman & Steven, 2006). It also helps to stop or rather reduce the circulation of hormones around the body that are released as a result of stress. Pain management in a geriatric patient experiencing multisystem failure and showing signs of pain who is not alert enough to respond to questions; can be done through administering of drugs to the patient in form of doses. This will help to relieve the patient of the pain. Assuming acetaminophen of 500mg or morphine of 0.05mg/kg or morphine 0.1mg/kg 1M was administered to a geriatric patient, there are several ways that would be used to know whether the choice of pain management was successful. For example in the case of Mrs. Baker, observing her level of consciousness and the rate of respiration after giving her the drug would be used to assess whether the choice of pain management was successful. When the patient comes back to the conscious state and the rate of respiration comes back to normal that would be clear indication that the choice of pain management was successful. After treating Mrs. Elli Baker, it is evident that treating other classes of patients is very easy and fast as compared to treating of geriatric patients. Treating geriatric patients proves to be difficult because no information can be obtained from them and this is a great challenge when treating them (Robert Porter, 2011). Team Members. There are several collaborative team members who were pertinent to the care of Mrs. Bakers, a geriatric patient. In other similar scenarios, the possible collaborative team members include health workers especially those working in the community, nurses and physicians (Waldman & Steven, 2006). For example when Mrs. Baker collapsed, if there was a community health worker around, she could have been helped before being taken to hospital. In the emergency rooms, nurses are the most effective and most significant team members. For example, when the respiratory problems of the patients increase, the emergency nurses employ tools such as the x-ray machine to check the respiratory systems of the patients. The nurses also do physical check up of the patients in the emergency room. To recap it all, in assessing Mrs. Baker, it was found out that she had several health problems such as complains of dyspnea, an increase in her respiratory rate and pulse, diabetes and hypertension. The technological tools that were used in treating her included a stethoscope and an x-ray machine. These tools were a great benefit to her since they helped the doctors attend to her. Several ways were used to collect information about her health condition which comprised of interviewing the people who accompanied her to the hospital and filling in of questionnaires with questions on the probable causes of her collapse. The team members who were involved in her treatment involved doctors and nurses. As discussed in this paper, it is also discovered that the treatment of geriatric patients is a difficult task since they hardly respond to questions posed to them by the nurses or doctors. References Hardy, Paul A.J (1997). Chronic pain management: the essentials. J.K Greenwich Medical Media Robert S. Porter (2011). The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. ISBN. Waldman, Steven D. (2006). Pain Management. Philadelphia: Saunders. Read More