Two patients on your unit have recently returned to the postsurgical unit after knee arthroplasty
One patient is reporting pain of 8 to 9 on a 0-to-10 pain scale, whereas the other patient is reporting a pain level of 3 to 4 on the same pain scale. What is the nurse's most plausible rationale for understanding the patients' different perceptions of pain?
A) Endorphin levels may vary between patients, affecting the perception of pain.
B) One of the patients is exaggerating his or her sense of pain.
C) The patients are likely experiencing a variance in vasoconstriction.
D) One of the patients may be experiencing opioid tolerance.
Ans: A
Feedback:
Different people feel different degrees of pain from similar stimuli. Opioid tolerance is associated with chronic pain treatment and would not likely apply to these patients. The nurse should not assume the patient is exaggerating the pain because the patient is the best authority of his or her existence of pain, and definitions for pain state that pain is "whatever the person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does."
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