Don't forget pain management during emergency and critical care

Emergency and critical care situations can put a lot of pressure on a clinician. Jessica Nord, VMD, said in an interview with dvm360® that refocusing on the basics can help veterinary professionals keep their cool and function at a high level under duress.

View the video below for the entire discussion. The following is a partial transcript.

Jessica Nord, VMD: The higher pain score pain scale that a patient has, that has physiologic effects downstream [that] can delay wound healing, can worsen certain physiologic processes, and can overall worsen prognosis for these patients who are really sick. And so as a general practice clinician, even if you don't feel comfortable dealing with some of these polytrauma patients, your unstable chemo abdomen, a septic patient, and you say, 'Yeah, my facility is not capable of handling this . . . I need to refer,' the very least thing that we can do if you don't feel comfortable with any of these other pieces . . . is having adequate pain management on board.