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An Ethical Framework for the Management of Pain in the Emergency Department
Author(s) -
Venkat Arvind,
Fromm Christian,
Isaacs Eric,
Ibarra Jordan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1111/acem.12158
Subject(s) - emergency department , medicine , pain management , narrative , narrative review , acute pain , virtue , component (thermodynamics) , medical emergency , nursing , intensive care medicine , physical therapy , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , anesthesia , political science , thermodynamics
Abstract Pain is a ubiquitous problem, affecting more than 100 million individuals in the United States chronically and many more in the acute setting. Up to three‐quarters of patients presenting to the emergency department ( ED ) report pain as a key component of their reasons for requiring acute care. While pain management is a fundamental component of emergency medicine ( EM ), there are numerous attitudinal and structural barriers that have been identified to effectively providing pain control in the ED . Coupled with public demands and administrative mandates, concerns surrounding ED pain management have reached a crisis level that should be considered an ethical issue in the profession of EM . In this article, the authors propose an ethical framework based on a combination of virtue, narrative, and relationship theories that can be used to address the clinical dilemmas that arise in managing pain in ED patients.