Exploring nursing interventions for acute pain in the postanesthesia care unit

The postanesthesia nurse encounters patients with pain daily in nursing practice. The intensity of patients' acute postsurgical pain varies from mild to very severe. Currently, the treatment of choice for postsurgical pain is administration of a narcotic, usually in titrated intravenous doses. When the pain is mild and the patient is able to cope until the narcotic reduces the intensity of the pain, narcotics alone are satisfactory. However, the patient with severe pain may not be able to cope with the length of time required for the narcotic administered to produce pain relief. For those patients additional measures are needed to assist them in coping with the pain. Nursing interventions may benefit the adult postanesthesia patient who is experiencing acute pain upon emergence from anesthesia. Physiology of pain transmission and nursing research in the area of acute pain control are the basis for interventions. Preoperative education and sensory preparation, distraction, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation are additional interventions with potential to enhance acute pain control in the PACU.