Managing Pain In Postoperative Patients: What The Hospitalist Needs To Know

Managing Pain In Postoperative Patients: What The Hospitalist Needs To Know is organized by Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM).

Course opens: 09/23/2019
Course expires: 09/23/2022

Summary:
Pain is probably the most common presenting or associated symptom in patients in the hospital, and patients are often more concerned about being in pain than they are about the primary reason for admission. Pain is a completely subjective experience that is the consequence of the filtering, modulating, and distorting of the afferent nerve activity (i.e., nociceptive input) through the affective (i.e., limbic system) and cognitive processes unique to each individual. The following educational module discusses why postoperative pain requires treatment, outlines methods for performing a proper assessment of pain, provides strategies for utilizing patient-controlled analgesia safely and effectively, and summarizes the use of opioid and non-opioid analgesics in the postoperative setting to help hospitalists improve patients’ quality of recovery and life.

Goal: Provide hospitalists with current information and guidelines for the treatment of postoperative pain.

Intended Learners: This activity is designed for hospitalists. No prerequisites are required.

Learning Objectives:
After completing the module, the participant should be able to:
• Define what pain is and recognize why postoperative pain requires treatment.
• Perform a proper assessment of pain in the postoperative patient.
• Utilize patient-controlled analgesia safely and effectively in the postoperative setting.
• Summarize how to use non-opioid analgesic agents in the postoperative period.
• Describe the appropriate use of opioids in the postoperative period.