Zeitschrift für Schmerz und Linderung

Abstrakt

Transforming the Concept of State of the Art Into Real Pain Relief for Patients after Cardiac Surgery. A Combined Nursing-Anesthesia Initiative

Cogan J*, Schaffer GV, Ouimette MF, Yegin Z and Ferland

Several publications have shown that adequate postsurgical pain control after cardiac surgery has been difficult to obtain. Hospital services have been admonished to develop appropriate organizations of care that will facilitate the use of existing expertise rather than focusing on the development of new analgesic drugs. In this article the authors discuss the multidisciplinary collaboration that enabled the creation and implementation, in a busy cardiac surgery service, of a structure that has forged significant improvement in the treatment of pain after cardiac surgery. This nurse-run program promotes the use of a “low-tech, highly personalized” approach to pain management where the daily clinical work is supported by the concept of the “Patient Pyramid of Care”.