Does Complimentary and Alternative medicine provide adequit pain Term Paper

Does Complimentary and Alternative medicine provide adequit pain relief compared to pharmacological means - Term Paper Example For temporary pain relief, I positioned the patient with pillows in the way she preferred, massaged the patient’s legs, and encouraged her to go through deep breathing exercises to make her less focused on her pain. After informing the doctor that the patient is complaining of irretractable pain and a history of osteoarthritis, the doctor changed her pain regime to include muscle relaxant and physical therapy to improve her range-of-motion (ROM). After a short period of time, the patient was able to get up and walk. Pain management is common health care practices that most primary nurses failed to master. Since it is common for primary nurses to deal with patients who are suffering from chronic pain, it is essential for nurses to increase their knowledge on how to effectively manage the patients’ pain. Based on the fact that nurses are not permitted to prescribe pharmacological drugs such as opioids in managing the patient’s pain, I find it very interesting to se arch for alternative ways that can effectively minimize the patients’ pain. ... As compared to the use of pharmacological means, this study will focus on discussing whether or not CAM can provide adequate pain relief to patients with chronic pain. After discussing the differences between CAM and pharmacological-based drugs, this report will conduct a literature review in determining the health care benefits of incorporating the use of CAM in pain management. Eventually, the proposed change in the plan of care and how these changes can be initiated will be tackled in details. Differences between Complimentary and Alternative Medicine and Pharmacological-based Drugs Complimentary and alternative medicine is â€Å"a form of healing arts that is not taught in a traditional Western medical schools that could promote options to the use of conventional medicine† (MedicineNet.com, 2007). It is basically â€Å"a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not currently considered to be a part of a conventional medicine† (Garrow & Egede, 2006). In most cases, the research study of Barnes, Powell-Griner, McFann & Nahin (2004) revealed that the commonly used CAM therapies includes: prayer for self (43%), natural products like herbal medicines, teas, and vitamins (18.9%), deep breathing exercises (11.6%), meditation (7.6%), chiropractic (7.5%), yoga (5.1%), massage (5.0%), diet-based therapies (3.5%), and acupuncture (1.1%). Pharmacological medicines are mostly chemical-based drugs. Often times, these drugs should be prescribed by the doctors. When treating pain, common drugs use includes opioids class drugs (i.e. morphine, hydromorphone, fentanyl, and oxycodone among others) which could provide the patients with analgesic effects to minimize the patient’s perceived pain (Mercadante et al., 2010; Murray & Hagen,