1/29
Vocabulary flashcards summarizing essential pain-management terms, concepts, and safety considerations discussed in the Chapter 10 lecture.
Name | Mastery | Learn | Test | Matching | Spaced |
---|
No study sessions yet.
Acute Pain
Pain that generally lasts less than 3 months (often < 6 months), decreases as healing occurs, and is usually accompanied by short-term objective signs such as ↑HR, ↑BP, ↑RR.
Chronic Pain
Persistent or recurrent pain that lasts longer than the expected time of healing (often > 6 months); may lack overt vital-sign changes and can lead to depression or negative behaviors.
Suffering
State that arises when pain persists without meaning or relief, threatening a person’s identity and well-being; associated with distress, impaired healing, and risk of suicide.
International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Definition
Defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage.”
McCaffery Definition of Pain
“Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the person says it does.” Emphasizes self-report as the gold standard.
Nociceptive Pain
Pain resulting from actual or threatened damage to non-neural tissue and activation of nociceptors (e.g., surgical incision, osteoarthritis).
Neuropathic Pain
Pain caused by lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system (e.g., diabetic neuropathy, phantom limb pain, shingles).
Inflammatory Response
Local tissue reaction to injury that releases chemical mediators, producing redness, heat, swelling, and acute pain.
Stress Response
Systemic release of hormones (e.g., cortisol, catecholamines) during uncontrolled pain, leading to ↑metabolic rate, impaired immunity, and poor wound healing.
Pain Threshold
The point at which a stimulus is perceived as painful.
Pain Tolerance
Amount of pain a person can endure before seeking relief; varies with history, culture, mood, and expectation.
Addiction
Compulsive drug use for non-therapeutic reasons, continued despite harm, with loss of control and craving.
Physical Dependence
Physiologic adaptation to a drug shown by withdrawal symptoms if the drug is stopped abruptly; not the same as addiction.
Tolerance
Need for increased drug doses over time to achieve the same analgesic effect because of physiologic adaptation.
Pseudo-addiction
Drug-seeking behavior that occurs when pain is undertreated; resolves when adequate analgesia is provided.
Balanced Analgesia
Use of two or more classes/routes of analgesics (e.g., opioid + NSAID + acetaminophen) to achieve better pain control with fewer side effects.
Non-pharmacological Pain Management
Techniques such as relaxation, heat/cold, massage, acupuncture, guided imagery, prayer, or meditation used to complement drugs.
5 Rights of Medication Administration
Right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right time—core safety checks before giving analgesics.
Pain Assessment
Systematic evaluation of location, intensity, quality, onset, duration, aggravating/relieving factors, and functional impact; includes patient’s self-report.
Comfort Goal (Target Pain Goal)
Mutually agreed level of pain relief or function that guides interventions and evaluation (e.g., able to walk to bathroom with pain ≤ 3/10).
Safety in Pain Management
Practice of preventing harm through correct dosing, monitoring for respiratory depression, checking allergies, and recognizing drug interactions.
Cultural Influences on Pain
Language, family roles, beliefs, and preferred treatments that shape how pain is expressed, assessed, and managed.
Spiritual Coping
Use of faith, prayer, meditation, or meaning-making to alleviate or re-frame the pain experience.
Phantom Pain
Neuropathic pain perceived in a body part that has been amputated; proof that tissue damage is not required for pain.
Complementary Modalities
Non-mainstream practices (e.g., acupressure, herbal teas, music therapy) used alongside conventional care to enhance comfort.
Weak-to-Strong Drug Chart (Analgesic Ladder)
Conceptual tool that orders analgesics from non-opioids to weak opioids to strong opioids for stepwise pain control.
Prioritization
Clinical decision process of determining which patient problem (e.g., uncontrolled pain) requires first intervention.
Evaluation of Outcomes
Post-intervention verification that pain goals are met and side effects are managed; drives further care planning.
Balanced Responsibility
Shared duty of nurse and patient: nurse facilitates relief, patient communicates honestly about pain and goals.
Syndrome (Pain Context)
Complex set of signs/symptoms (e.g., toxic shock syndrome) that, if misunderstood, can mask uncontrolled pain and lead to suffering.