NCAHS Acute Pain Services
Acute Pain CNS Stephanie Pagotto, Area CNC Jenni Prince & Anaesthetist Dr Chris Lowry, discuss acute pain issues at Lismore Base Hospital
Acute Pain Services are an essential service in hospitals that perform major surgery. Decisions regarding the management of acute pain following surgery or trauma are generally made by the Anaesthetist. Thus the Department of Anaesthesia oversees the running of the Acute Pain Service. Options for the management of post-operative pain are usually discussed in consultation with the patient at the pre-admission visit prior to surgery.
At some sites in the North Coast Area Health Service, Anaesthetists are not always available for consultation about pain control - therefore a nurse-based model of acute pain management was developed. This means that while the anaesthetist/doctor prescribes the pain medication, nurses at all sites are educated to make decisions that provide effective around-the-clock pain management to patients.
At our larger hospitals - The Tweed, Lismore Base and Port Macquarie Hospital we have Acute Pain Nurses and Anaesthetic Registrars that manage the Acute Pain Service. At these two sites the nurse and the registrar perform daily pain rounds to ensure that post-operative and post-trauma pain is being effectively managed. The Recovery Room staff at these sites also play a major role in the provision of the Acute Pain Service. Most patients who are visited by the Acute Pain Service will have Patient Controlled Analgesia, Peripheral Nerve Block or Epidural Analgesia for the management of their pain.
All care in the management of acute post-operative and post-trauma pain is governed by the NCAHS Policy and Clinical Procedures in Pain Management. These are evidence-based documents ensuring safe and effective guidelines for care.
If you have any questions regarding the management of acute pain in the NCAHS the Acute Pain Nurse can be contacted at the following number:
Contacts
- The Tweed Hospital - phone: (07) 55 067 449
- Lismore Base Hospital - phone: (02) 66 207 252
- Port Macquarie Hospital - phone: (02) 65 812 000 (then have the acute pain nurse paged)
- North Coast Area Clinical Nurse Consultant Pain Management - (02) 66 202116 or 0412 824744