A Hospice Patient Is in Continuous Pain, and the Health

A hospice patient is in continuous pain, and the health care provider has left orders to administer morphine at a rate that controls the pain. When the nurse visits the patient, the patient is awake but moaning with severe pain and asks for an increase in the morphine dosage. The respiratory rate is 10 breaths per minute. The most appropriate action by the nurse is to

A) titrate the morphine dose upward until the patient states there is adequate pain relief.
B) administer a nonopioid analgesic, such as ibuprofen, to improve patient pain control.
C) tell the patient that additional morphine can be administered when the respirations are 12.
D) inform the patient that increasing the morphine will cause the respiratory drive to fail.