Pleading
the fifth February 28, 2017 -- How do you know your patient is in pain? "They tell you." How much pain? "They tell you a number from zero to ten." This is what we are taught in nursing school -- the "fifth vital sign" -- and it is an article of faith. However, it is fraught with issues, not the least of them that it has legal repercussions, providing the foundation for lawsuits and in some cases substantial penalties. But is it a reliable indicator? Not much, says Diane M. Goodman in The Pitfalls of Pain Scales in this month's Medscape. This is a fascinating read, and an important issue for nursing and quality of care. |
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Dan Keller's Nursing, Health Policy & Healthcare Technology Blog
Nursing Informatics · Clinical Perspectives · Healthcare Systems
"The United States alone [among wealthy countries] treats health care as a commodity to be distributed according to the ability to pay rather than a social service to be distributed according to medical need." — JAMA (2003), 290, 798