Pain Management Consent Considerations

Healthcare professionals must consider patients as collaborators in the process of healthcare decision making. In matters of perioperative pain managementPerioperative pain management, it is important to consider and include patients in decisions that may be impacted by their personal history of pain managementPain management/analgesicAnalgesics administration, value system/thought process regarding pain managementPain management, and the relative impact of potential complications related to analgesicAnalgesics procedures and opioidOpioids analgesicsAnalgesics. To make these decisions, healthcare professionals must consider the ability of patients to make decisions in the setting of painPain and polypharmacy and if the use of adjunct/surrogateSurrogate decision makers may be appropriate/beneficial. In addition, it is important to consider how information is conveyed and the degree of detail that is required to ensure that patients are equipped to make a decision that best aligns with their belief system and values. Finally, patient decisions must be respected, and they must know that they possess the autonomy to be ultimately responsible for the decisions that will impact their healthcare delivery.