Comments on: Under Treatment of Pain in the Dementia Patient

By: Bobby

Bobby — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:12:05 +0000

I am really glad someone recognizes the need for family members to watch what kind of care dementia patients are given. Too many times abuses or neglect on the part of the hospital or hospice is overlooked or not simply just not noticed. Unfortunately, this is an all too common problem.

By: admin

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:48:31 +0000

Yesterday, a nurse’s aid actually asked my father what his pain level was on a scale of 1 to 10. Considering my father hadn’t spoken anything all morning except “Oh God” and “will you help me, please” I looked at her in astonishment and said “You can’t ask a dementia patient that !”.
I would hate to think that our profession doesn’t care, but I’m beginning to wonder. The R.N. who had JUST told me that my father pulled out his supra-pubic catheter during the night and noted that it had been 9 hours since he had received Tylenol with codeine, asked me….”Does your father have a chronic pain problem?” I wanted to say “what are you, an idiot!?!? You just told me he pulled out his catheter. If YOU pulled a tube (with a balloon full of water attached) straight through your abdominal wall, would you not be in pain??”
Perhaps our society is so worried about addiction that it has over shadowed the fact that pain medications were invented for a reason.

By: Marji

Marji — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:45:22 +0000

You are speaking my heart here. Over in over in nursing classes we are told that “pain is what the patient says it is” but, while the sentiment behind the phrase is noble – the idea itself totally disregards those patients whose words and thoughts don’t always “jive” anymore. It is frustrating to me to know that, even though there is abundant evidence that pain is undertreated (or totally ignored) in dementia patients, very few health care providers are aware of that fact. Or maybe they just don’t care.