September was Pain Awareness Month: We are All in this Together  

Although it is October, I wanted to remind everyone that September was Pain Awareness Month. Remembering these dedicated months allows us to reflect on conditions that impact the patients and families who are impacted by chronic pain as Nurse Case Manager.  

As we reflect on Pain Awareness Month, we have the opportunity to look at our work and see how we can improve. That is why in this week’s post, I wanted to talk about chronic Pain and remind you of the role we have to educate and empower patients and their families to cope with conditions, like chronic pain.  

Here are some facts:  

• Approximately 51.6 million U.S. adults report having chronic pain daily.  

• The estimated economic cost of chronic pain in the U.S. is $560-635 billion annually.  

• This cost includes medical, disability days, lost wages, and effects on productivity. 

• Expenditures for healthcare for back and neck pain in the U.S. is $87.6 billion per year.  

Understanding Pain:  

It's normal to experience pain episodes at some point in our lives. Pain can help protect us from dangerous situations, like our response to pull away when we touch something hot. Most pain is short-lived and directly tied to an injury or illness, like a sprained ankle or a headache associated with a virus. This type of pain resolves quickly, spontaneously, or with common-sense treatments like rest, over-the-counter pain medication, ice, or using an ace bandage to stabilize the extremity for some time.  

Pain that lasts for an extended period (more than three months) or is recurrent over long periods is considered chronic pain. Chronic pain may have a known cause, like joint pain, a fracture, arthritis, or nerve pain from compression of a spinal cord disc. 

Chronic pain can seriously affect individuals, employers, the healthcare system, and the economy. It also negatively impacts the quality of life of those suffering from chronic pain, financial costs as many with chronic pain cannot work, for treatment and filling lost time at work for the employer, as well as stress on the health care professionals through the increasing number of chronic pain patients and the difficulty of treating them. 

Treating and Managing Chronic Pain 

Today, we are learning more and more about treating chronic pain. As Nurse Case Managers, we can help our patients by helping them understand their pain and treatment options that can help them cope. Listening to our patients and helping them cope is a vital competency all case managers need to work on. We can also introduce them and their treatment team to resources we learn about through going to conferences, doing our own research, and talking to colleagues who also work with chronic pain patients.  

Effectively managing chronic pain goes beyond medication and therapy—it's fundamentally about the relationship between individuals living with pain and their providers. In too many cases, this relationship is fractured. Nurse case managers need to recognize this and find new providers when the doctor and patient's relationship is no longer working.  

Helping the patient and the family understand that the pain the person is feeling is real and what they can do to lower the amount of pain is part of the nurse case manager's assessment and plan of care. This usually entails non-medical therapies like relaxation, psychological counseling, support groups, and other treatments that can help the person cope.  

Every person with chronic pain is different and will need a specific plan of care. Here are two resources I have been using to learn more about chronic pain and how we can help a person deal with and manage chronic pain.   

First, I recently found the U.S. Pain Foundation: The mission of the U.S. Pain Foundation is to empower, educate, connect, and advocate for people living with chronic conditions that cause pain. Here is their link to learn more. https://uspainfoundation.org/painawarenessmonth  

Secondly, I have been following Dr. David Hanscom, a retired orthopedic surgeon suffering from chronic pain. Through his own experiences, he is helping people (patients, families, and all healthcare team members to understand chronic pain better. I have learned a great deal that has helped me help family, friends, and patients I have worked with to deal with and manage chronic pain. Dr. Hanscom speaks internationally on chronic pain and is open to talking to case managers and other professionals about their patients. Here is a link to one of his websites: https://thedocjourney.com/about.  

How have you learned to manage patients with chronic pain? Send me an email, and I can use your insights in a future article. As they say, we are all in this together!  

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