RNSG 2331 - Cancer & End-Of-Life Study Guide.

RNSG 2331 - Cancer & End-Of-Life Study Guide/RNSG 2331 - Cancer & End-Of-Life Study Guide. 1. End of Life: Pain Management – What’s the RNs role? Understand Family teaching regarding medication administration timing/dosing and therapeutic communication regarding false beliefs of “addiction”. Pain The symptom that dying patients fear the most. RN’s participate in palliative care; the goal of palliative care is to prevent and relieve suffering and to support the best possible quality of life for the patient and their family. RN’s roles are to: Teach family/caregiver to watch for objective signs of discomfort (restlessness, grimacing, moaning) and identify when these symptoms occur in relation to positioning, movement, medication, or other external stimuli. Assess any symptoms of distress in terms of intensity, frequency, duration, quality, exacerbating and relieving factors, and effect on the patient’s comfort when awake or asleep. Educate family that a patient will become tolerant to opioid medication; it does not mean the patient is addicted to the opioid and it does not hasten death unless the dose was not properly and gradually titrated (Right timing and right dose). Administer the same opioid regimen that was followed before the last weeks of life. Even though a patient maybe unconscious, it is believed that he or she still feels pain. Continue to administer the scheduled doses of long-acting opioids to prevent pain reoccurrence.