We need to speed up our acceptance of the opioid guidelines
A couple of years ago, I inherited a patient who was on both a patch for the powerful painkiller fentanyl and a high dose of oxycodone four times daily — and she didn’t have cancer.
I had 15 minutes with that patient to get her medical history, review her medications, assess her current complaints, and decide whether or not to continue her opioid prescriptions. I had no paper records and a very poor electronic medical record system. I lacked a lot of the information I needed in order to prescribe such a high opioid dose.
However, if I refused to continue the opioid prescriptions, I would force the patient into withdrawal. I weighed my options and came up with a reasonable plan, but it would have gone much better if I’d had some guidelines to fall back on. Amid the hubbub of the community health center where I work as a nurse practitioner, I felt stuck and alone.
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Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/kathryn-takayoshi" rel="tag" > Kathryn Takayoshi, NP-C < /a > Tags: Meds Pain management Source Type: blogs
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