A patient is seen talking and laughing in the clinic's waiting room yet complains of excruciating pain. What should the nurse realize this patient is demonstrating?
1. the desire for narcotics
2. denial
3. fake pain
4. inconsistent behavioral response to pain
Correct Answer: 4
Behavioral responses to pain may or may not coincide with the patient's report of pain and are not very reliable cues to the pain experience. The nurse needs to manage the pain if the patient verbalizes that it is present, even if the nonverbal signs are not congruent. The nurse cannot decide if the patient's pain is real. No mention is made of the patient requesting narcotics.
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