You are caring for a patient in the postoperative period following an abdominal hysterectomy

Question

Your patient states, "I don't want to use my pain medication because it will make me dependent, and I won't get better as fast." Which response is most important when explaining the use of pain medication?
A) "You will need the pain medication for at least 1 week to help in your recovery. What do you mean you feel you won't get better faster?"
B) "Pain medication will help to decrease your pain and increase your ability to breath. Dependency is a risk with pain medication, but you are young and won't have any problems."
C) "Pain medication can be given by mouth to prevent the risk of dependency that you are worried about. The pain medication has shown to increase your risk of a slowed recovery."
D) "Pain medication decreases your pain so you can move more easily. You will heal more quickly with decreased pain. Dependence only occurs when it is administered for an extended period of time."

Answer 1

Ans: D
Feedback: Postoperatively, medications are administered to relieve pain and maintain comfort without increasing the risk of inadequate air exchange. In the responses by the nurse, the final response addresses the patient's concerns about drug dependency and the nurse's need to increase the patient's ability to move and recover from surgery. The remaining responses offer incorrect information such as increasing the patient's ability to breath or specifying the time needed to take the medication. Narcotic pain medication will cause respiratory depression.