Question

. Discuss the problem of assessing pain in cognitively impaired older adults. Describe the nurse's responsibility in managing pain in cognitively impaired older adults. Identify tools that can be used to assess pain in the cognitively impaired older adult.

Answer 1

The main problem of assessing pain in cognitive impaired older adults are their inability to express the pain in verbal forms. They lack the power to understand that it is pain and it has to be reported for medical help.

The nurses responsibility is to assess the patient through proper observation and history collection from the family members ,assess the patient's behavior,aggression ,irritability to know the zone of discomfort and provide appropriate pain relief method.

The tools which can be used in cognitively impaired patient are PAINAD tool and PACSLAC tool.