Page 72 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

Pain Management 45

Table 2.5 Pain variations in acute and chronic pain
Wound
Type Pain Type
Acute Acute background pain
Acute Acute/procedural pain during dressing change
Chronic Chronic nociceptive background pain
Chronic Chronic neuropathic background pain
Chronic Acute/procedural pain during dressing change
Chronic Neuropathic pain during dressing change

comfortable and practitioners are able to reach optimal pain
management. As neuropathic pains may present unusual
symptoms (such as allodynia or hyperalgesia), clinicians may
encounter novel situations whereby patient’s experiences of
pain vary despite similarities in the presentation of their
wounds. Hence, within the preparation stage, it is necessary for
clinicians to consider their own thoughts and feelings in rela-
tion to wound treatment and pain to encourage open-minded-
ness and non-pejorative approaches. Additionally, it is essential
that clinicians recognise that acute pain and chronic pain
require different skills in terms of management (IASP 2012 ).

Assessment

Next, in providing effective pain management, clinicians need
to accurately assess patient’s experiences of pain (as described
above). This can sometimes be troublesome due to the com-
plex nature of wound treatment (various forms of wounds
and pain see Table 2.5 ), requiring clinicians to compartmen-
talise the numerous aspects of pain and wound care. Hence,
an individualised approach is needed with practitioners
adopting a flexible and open-minded attitude to differing
treatment regimes.
In assessing acute and procedural pain, clinicians can adopt
a variety of measures, including those outlined above. Although