Therapeutic Pain Management: Nursing Care for Patients Suffering from Burns

Abstract

Burn patients’ care phase stretches from the time when the injury has been incurred to the time when the burn wound has healed completely. Most burn wounds are painful as a result of damage caused to the epidermis and dermis. Pain management and pain alleviation is a critical element for burn patients. Pain from the injuries caused by the burns calls for therapeutic treatment or intervention to reduce patients suffering. This study sought to establish therapeutic techniques that nurses uses in the management of pain in burn patients and it was guided by the following research question:(1)What types of pain do burn patients’ experience? (2)What approaches do nurses apply in the management of pain of burn patients? The method used in this study is litterature review. The results of the study was outlined in 3 heading namely, types of pain experienced by burn patients, approaches nurses apply in management of burn pain and therapeutic approaches to pain management. The study found out that pain experienced by burn patients majorly revolve around treatment procedures like dressing and wound debridement, the findings also indicated that the application of non-pharmacologic methods had less positive effect to pain management compared to pharmacologic methods.