The health care provider orders a patient-controlled analgesia (PCA)machine to provide pain relief for a patient with acute surgical pain who has never received opioids before. Which nursing actions regarding opioid administration are appropriate at this time ?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Monitoring for pain relief and teaching the patient about how opioid use will improve postoperative outcomes are appropriate actions when administering opioids for acute pain. Although postoperative patients usually need a decreasing amount of opioids by the second postoperative day,each patient's response is individual. Tolerance may occur,but addiction to opioids will not develop in the acute postoperative period. The patient should use the opioids to achieve adequate pain control,so the nurse should not emphasize the adverse effects.

The Health Care Provider Orders a Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA)machine to Provide