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Nursing Interventions for Pain Management During Labor
Nursing Interventions for Pain Management During Labor ( 5 Questions)
A nurse is assessing a client’s pain during labor using a numerical rating scale.
The client reports a pain level of 8 out of 10.
What is the nurse’s priority action?
administering a prescribed analgesic medication may not be the best option for a woman who reports a pain level of 8 out of 10.Analgesic medications have side effects and risks for both the mother and the fetus, and may interfere with the progress of labor
According to the article by Carvalho and Mhyre, pain scales such as the numerical rating scale are unidimensional and lack many characteristics of an ideal psychometric pain instrument in a labor setting.
reassessing the pain level after 15 minutes may not be helpful or realistic for a woman who is experiencing intense pain
According to the article by Carvalho and Mhyre, pain scales such as the numerical rating scale are unidimensional and lack many characteristics of an ideal psychometric pain instrument in a labor setting.
They also state that “the most important question for laboring women is not ‘How much does it hurt?’ but rather ‘How are you coping?’”. Therefore, the nurse’s priority action is to assess the woman’s coping skills and provide comfort measures such as relaxation, breathing techniques, massage, heat or cold application, etc