Pain: what is it and how can nurses support patients?

Half the UK population has chronic pain, making nurses increasingly likely to encounter patients living with it.

So, what skills do nurses need to employ to understand how pain impacts an individual’s life and assess what physical and mental health support they may need?

This episode of the podcast explores the management of both acute and chronic pain with three experts in the field.

Guest podcast host Martin Galligan, lecturer practitioner and programme lead of advanced clinical practice in cancer care at The Royal Marsden, interviews fellow pain specialists nurse consultants Felicia Cox and Karin Cannon.

They discuss the importance of recognising pain as being what the individual describes it to be and the use of functional pain assessments to determine what the patient wants and needs, including psychological peace, to help manage their condition.

The trio also talk about using motivational interviewing skills to support people with pain and acknowledging the sense of loss that patients may experience in coming to terms with chronic pain.

For more episodes of the Nursing Standard podcast, visit rcni.com/podcast

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