Mr. Johnson is recovering from abdominal surgery and complains of pain and asks for pain-relieving medication. What should be your first action?
a. Ask him to rate the pain on a 1-to-10 scale, with 10 being the most severe pain
b. Observe him and try to ascertain his level of pain
c. Tell him he must tell his physician and that you can do nothing for him
d. Tell him that the pain medication he had been given earlier should be controlling his pain
A
A cardinal rule is "A patient's pain is what the patient tells you it is." If he reports a pain level of 9 and you think it might be 5, you should act on the basis of the reported level of 9 . You cannot determine how he feels (response B). Most physicians leave standing orders for postoperative pain, so response C is incorrect. His pain is not being controlled, so response D would be belittling.
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