What Does A Pain Management Nurse Do
Pain management nurses are responsible for assessing patient care needs, implementing a treatment plan, and evaluating the response. Specifically, pain management nurses may:
- Administer pain medications via various routes, i.e. intravenous, intramuscular, or intrathecal
- Monitor patient receiving conscious sedation
- Recover patients after receiving sedation
- Review medical records
- Assist physicians with invasive pain management techniques
Can You Become A Pain Management Nurse Online
You can earn your nursing degree online. However, clinical experience for an online nursing student must be completed in person. Most schools will help you find a clinical placement in your community. Once you have your nursing license, you can take the required continuing education for certification online.
How Much Time Should I Expect To Devote To The Program
Students must be registered as full-time graduate students in the AHCP program. Students are encouraged to continue to work clinically during the program in order to be able to incorporate new knowledge and skills into their clinical practice.
Students can expect to devote at least 20 30 hours/week to program related activities .
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Criteria For Successful Completion
- Submit registration and payment.
- A certificate for contact hours will be awarded following successful completion of study guides for each module, receive a passing score of 70% or better on comprehensive final, and submission of program evaluation.
The certificate of completion will be sent via email immediately upon the completion of the program evaluation.
Program Goals And Objectives
Graduates of this program will gain an understanding of the following:
1. Multidimensional Nature of Pain
- Basic neuron atoms and neurophysiology of pain
- History of theories of pain and the evolution of pain treatments
- Advanced neurophysiology of pain including immunology and epigenetics
- The history and current state of US policy and law towards opioids
- The impact of these policies on the public and the physician
2. Pain Assessment and Measurement
- Pain classification systems and Part 1 of pain diagnoses, including acute pain, headache and back pain
- Assessing patients with chronic pain
- Common pain diagnoses Cancer, Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Musculoskeletal
3. Management of Pain
- Psychosocial aspects of the pain experience, psychological comorbidities
- Fundamentals of pharmacological treatment of pain
- History, physiology, and policy aspects of opioids in medicine and addiction
- Psychological aspects of treating pain & its comorbidities
- Chiropractic medicine, osteopathy, homeopathy and acupuncture in the treatment of pain
- Adding a pain focus to a clinical practice: when to refer, pitfalls, building a team, marketing
- Management of physical and emotional distress at the end of life
- PT & OT techniques for assessing and treating chronic pain
- Interventional treatments and advanced pharmacotherapyappropriate for prescribing clinicians
4. Clinical Conditions
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What Other Healthcare Professionals Do Pain Management Nurses Work With
Pain management nursing calls for working with many other healthcare professionals. You will work with physicians or nurse practitioners who prescribe pain medication. Depending on your workplace, you may work with surgeons, geriatricians, oncologists, rheumatologists, and other specialists. In residential care, you might work with social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, or other mental health specialists.
How Much Do Pain Management Nurses Make
According to data from PayScale, pain management nurses earn an average base salary of $60,000. However, salaries vary according to location, experience, and education level, with earnings ranging from $28,000 to $78,000 among top earners.
Like other nurses, pain management nurses face an optimistic job outlook. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of RNs could grow much faster than average, increasing by over 220,000 jobs through 2029 at a 7% growth rate. This is largely due to an aging population demanding more medical care as baby boomers grow older.
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What Is A Pain Management Nurse
Pain management nurses are registered nurses who specialize in the care of patients with chronic, sometimes debilitating pain. They are experts on pain management interventions and techniques.
In 2001, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations introduced standards for healthcare providers to address pain assessment and management, to include more aggressive pain management such as opioid administration.
After about 10 years, the number of patients who developed opioid addictions/dependence skyrocketed. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, of the 20.5 million people with substance use disorder, 2 million had substance use disorder involving prescription pain medications. This epidemic led to healthcare providers finding alternative and safer pain management techniques, such as:
Pain Management Nursing Certification
- Certification in pain management nursing is not legally required, but it is valuable.
- Certification requires at least 2,000 hours of experience in pain management nursing and at least 30 hours of continuing education in the last three years. At least two years of full-time nursing is expected. You must also pass the exam.
- You renew your certification every five years through continuing education and ongoing experience in pain management nursing.
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Why Study This Course
This is an interprofessional, e-Learning course intended for healthcare professionals who want to specialise in the field of pain management. It is also aimed at educationalists, to provide the appropriate knowledge and expertise on pain, to teach others from various disciplines.
Pain is a multidimensional phenomenon and as such needs to be managed through multidisciplinary initiatives. These initiatives must be based on specialist knowledge, rigorous research and an advanced understanding of the physiological and behavioural concepts involved.
This two-year course begins by introducing you to the multifaceted nature of caring for patients who have pain. The modules are designed to provide you with the ability to understand the biopsychosocial aspects of pain and to evaluate the various approaches to assessing and managing patients in pain. Professional issues, including quality and safety, leadership and law will also be covered.
The course is suitable for the needs of primary, secondary and tertiary care professionals.
Our assessments are structured to allow you to focus on your own areas of interest and to evaluate topics in relation to your practice and professional base.
- University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XN
S To Becoming A Pain Management Nurse
The first step in becoming a pain management nurse is getting a registered nurse license. Pain management nursing is an RN specialty. You will need to earn a degree in nursing, pass the National Council Licensure Examination for RNs , and receive a state license. Then you will begin work in pain management nursing. Once you have at least 2,000 hours of experience in pain management, you can apply for certification.
Earn an associate degree in nursing or a bachelor of science in nursing
Pass the NCLEX exam to receive RN licensure
Gain experience in pain management
Earn pain management nursing certification
To earn certification, you must have at least two years of full-time nursing experience. You must also document nursing continuing education in pain management . Lastly, you should have 2,000 hours of pain management experience in the last three years.
While certification isnât legally required, many employers require or strongly prefer it for higher-level positions. This can help you earn the best pain management nurse salary.
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How Will I Be Supported
The course is delivered entirely as distance-learning via our virtual learning environment , where you will find course materials, links to related materials and assessments, discussion boards, announcements, Turnitin and Gradecentre.
You are encouraged to make regular contribution through online discussion boards, where you will be supported by the programme team and a panel of experts. You will also be able to plan and reflect on your learning through your own personal blog.
You will be allocated a personal tutor, for help and support with academic and pastoral needs, who will be in regular contact to discuss progress and to provide advice and guidance as needed. Extensive written feedback and feedforward is given on all assessments.
During the dissertation stage, you will also be allocated a project supervisor to support and advise you on researching and writing up your specific dissertation topic.
Feedback
Formative feedback will be communicated through electronic and written means in a timely manner. Summative feedback on assessment will be delivered within the timeframe set by the University.
Your dissertation supervisor will give written feedback on dissertation drafts and provide you with the opportunity to discuss any queries you may have.
Pain Management Nursing: Job Duties
All of these responsibilities add up to a variety of job duties that can be quite different from what nurses experience in other specialties. Of course, there are the usual tasks, like checking and monitoring a patients vital signs, but beyond that, pain management nurses perform tasks like these:
- Assessing and monitoring patients pain levels
- Working with doctors and others on a care team to create a treatment plan
- Administering medications or helping implement other therapies
- Educating patients and their families on pain relief options
- Monitoring patients and implementing safeguards to ensure that narcotic treatments do not become habit forming
This list may seem straightforward, but it becomes trickier when you remember that pain is subjective. Pain management nurses must be able to weigh a patients experienced pain levels, desired lifestyles and mental health alongside various therapy options.
A lot of pain management is intuition and your evaluation of that patient, Gregge says. We are trained to look at how the patient experiences the illness and treat patients as a whole, which is what pain management requires.
Pain management nurses are also more likely to work with an interdisciplinary team of specialists to provide patient care, such as physical therapists, acupuncturists, psychologists or addiction specialists.
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Pain Management Nurse Education
There are two possible education paths to consider when deciding how to become a pain management nurse: a two-year ADN or a four-year BSN. While the ADN takes less time and tuition costs are less, and can lead to appealing nursing jobs with an associate degree, a four-year degree is typically required for mid- to upper-level positions.
Earning a BSN for this nursing specialty may be valuable because pain management nursing duties can be complex.
Job Description And Duties
A pain management nurse is a licensed, registered nurse who treats patients with chronic or acute pain due to an injury or an illness. They assess patients and assist them in learning to manage their own chronic or symptom-related pain. As a pain management nurse, you would coordinate the patients care plan with physicians and other healthcare team members, coordinating the patients care. You could work in a hospital or in an outpatient clinic, or even in a rehabilitation center or nursing home. Typical duties for a pain management nurse can vary immensely, though they are still about assessing the patients level of pain, treating that, and evaluating improvement. Most pain management nurses have additional training in pharmacology, as an important part of their job is administering and monitoring the effects of medication that has been prescribed by doctors. Educating the patient about their pain medication and other measures they can take to alleviate pain is also an important part of their job. These nurses need to demonstrate empathy, appreciate cultural differences in beliefs about pain, be comfortable with alternative pain therapies, and possess good medical assessment skills when evaluating patients complaints of pain or discomfort.
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When Can I Expect To Hear Whether I Have Been Accepted Into The Program
The admission committee will review completed application files beginning mid-March each year. This committee makes recommendations for admission to the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies , which reviews required documents to confirm all requirements. Provided all requirements have been met, SGPS will send out a letter of offer of admission by email to the applicant directly. This typically occurs in late May.
Be The Future Of Pain Management
As part of an emerging field, pain management experts are imperative in educating other clinicians on the importance of evidence-informed pain-management practice, and integrating that knowledge across healthcare environments.
Additionally, in a health landscape that is facing pain-management challenges like the current chronic pain crisis, advanced health care practitioners can engage in public health education and knowledge sharing, empower patients and advocate on their behalf. Graduates of the Interprofessional Pain Management program are prepared to face these challenges through learning activities that promote the development of their leadership, communication and public education skills.
Working with practice-based and clinical mentors provides students with the opportunity to observe how their mentor approaches their roles as a leader and educator, and recognize how these can be integrated into their own practice and their own future opportunities to become mentors.
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Pain Management Nursing Education And Certification Requirements
However before you can enter this specialty, you will need to become a licensed registered nurse. You can earn your nursing degree in just two to three years if you pursue an Associate Degree in Nursing , or you can purse a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from a four-year college or university with an accredited nursing program. Learn more by researching available nursing programs by state. When you complete your degree, you will need to become a licensed nurse in your state, which involves passing the NCLEX exam , given by the states board of nursing. For nurses who have earned a masters degree or aim to earn a masters degree and become a nurse practitioner, there are also opportunities to as work nurse practitioners in pain management practices.
What Happens If I Apply On Time But My References Or Transcript Aren’t Available Until After Applications Close
- Applications will not be considered by the admission committee until they are complete
- Starting March 1, the limited spots that are available in the program will be filled by students who have provided complete applications
- Students are strongly encouraged to have applications complete at least two weeks prior to the deadline to allow sufficient time for other requirements to be delivered
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Learning And Demonstrating Capacity
Although learners may elect to complete a course as a foundation for competency, this program recognized that learning can occur in far more contexts than the classroom. This program includes a series of entrustable professional activities that can be completed under real-world clinical contexts. These include recorded patient interactions and reflections, deep conversations with interprofessional colleagues and staff, capture and interpretation of clinical outcomes, creation of new clinical knowledge through rigorous case-based or N-of-1 type research, and oral conversations and defenses of ideas with experts and peers. Most of the evidence of mastery can be demonstrated in a routine clinical practice, the only difference is that during this program learners will be required to capture, interpret, and reflect upon much of what is traditionally lost as the ‘data exhaust’ of daily practice.
Instead of a thesis, through the program learners will add their growing evidence of mastery to an electronic portfolio. Through collaboration with the learner, academic and clinical mentors, the learning team will decide when enough evidence has been accrued for any of the 5 competencies, and that sub-portion of the e-portfolio will then be sent to an independent content expert examiner for review and a judgement of whether the information within demonstrates adequate mastery. There is no oral defense.
What Is Pain Management Nursing A Look At This Helping Healthcare Specialty
By Ashley Brooks on 05/24/2021
Can you imagine being in pain more often than not? It sounds like a nightmare, but for 50 million American adults, its reality.1 Chronic pain comes in many forms, from continuous to episodic or from targeted to widespread throughout the body. Those suffering from chronic pain share the need for pain management nurses to bring them relief.
Pain management nursing is a specialty that aims to improve patients quality of life so that they can continue doing activities they enjoy without pain holding them back. However, this isnt an area of nursing many people know about. You probably have plenty of questions about what its really like to be a pain management nurse.
We spoke with Brandi Gregge, a family nurse practitioner with experience in pain management nursing, to learn more about this specialty. Join us as we explore the benefits, challenges and job duties of a pain management nurseand, most importantly, discover the difference they can make for their patients.
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Is The Pain Management Nursing Specialty Right For You
Pain management nursing isnt right for everyone. But the RNs who choose this career path can make a big difference in the lives of their patients.
If youre still unsure about the right nursing specialty for you, take a look at the Top 25 Types of Nurses Employers Are Looking to Hire to get more ideas! No matter the specialized focus you choose to pursue as a registered nurse, the Rasmussen University Professional Nursing program can provide an excellent foundation for getting started.
1James Dahlhamer et al. Prevalence of Chronic Pain and High-Impact Chronic Pain Among AdultsUnited States, 2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, September 14, 2018 www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/pdfs/mm6736a2-H.pdfASPMN is a registered trademark of American Society of Pain Management Nursing, Inc.
The Foundation Of Your Career
Combining academic excellence with UCL’s reputation as a top global university and our strong links to industry, the graduate prospects of this programme are excellent. Whether you wish to continue with patient care, pursue doctoral research, or work in industry and innovation, this programme provides the knowledge and skills as well as the networking links and research experience to take your career to the next level.
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