What is the prevalence of pain in older adults? How will you, as a nurse, be more aware of pain issues related to older adults and what will the nurse incorporate into practice?  

Week 4 Discussion 2

As people grow old, their immune system weakness and their chances of developing various health disorders increase. These health disorders may cause chronic pain. Some of the common conditions in older adults that may cause chronic pain include musculoskeletal problems such as arthritis, peripheral vascular conditions, and neuropathic pain (Schwan et al., 2019). Chronic pain results in lack of sleep, depression, poor physical functioning, amongst others. However, older people fail to report their chronic pains to their health care professionals unless the pain gets acute (Schwan et al., 2019). They fear actions such as hospitalization, invasive tests, numerous prescriptions, and loss of independence. Not reporting their pain may always lead to underdiagnoses or even improper treatment, lowering their quality of life.

Since older adults do not report their pain, assessing chronic pain in older adults may be very challenging. Therefore, nurses can use a pain rating scale to assess the older folks to help identify any chronic pain in the patient (Schwan et al., 2019). These scales vary depending on the patients. For older adults with cognitive-communication issues, the nurses may use numeric rating scales, while the nurses may use verbal rating scales for the visually impaired. Another way to be aware of pain issues in patients is by encouraging them to keep pain diaries. These diaries can yield several clues to the nurses concerning chronic pain in their patients. Observation of patients' behavior is another way to determine whether the patient is experiencing any chronic pain.

After identifying the chronic pain in the older adults, nurses may prescribe various pain medications to the individual based on their symptoms (Schwan et al., 2019). When issuing such medication, the nurses must also come up with a plan on how to monitor the patient compliance with prescription response to the drugs. Some older adults do not want a pharmaceutical approach for managing pain. In such cases, nurses may advise on non-pharmaceutical approaches such as various simple exercises and therapies.