My concerns with patient’s current regimen would be opioid dependence and abuse while taking care of her grandchildren. Patient is not only receiving…

Question Answered step-by-step My concerns with patient’s current regimen would be opioid dependenceand abuse while taking care of her grandchildren. Patient is not only receiving medications from her physicians in USA but also in Mexico. Pt is also taking a benzodiazepine with opioids which is not recommended (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2021, p.589). I would first educate patient on the importance to look for different alternatives for her shoulder and back pain as well as the risks of her relying on pain medication only. I would offer physical therapy and start patient on a schedule on how to take her pain medication to try to reduce the amount of medication she is consuming.  It is important to consider continue with opioid therapy only if expected benefits for both pain and function are anticipated to outweigh risks to the patient as well as to review the patient’s history of controlled substance prescriptions using a PDMP (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2021). I would consider offering naloxone since she is in high risk for opioid overdose and concurrent benzodiazepine use (Rosenthal & Burchum, 2021).  In this case, I would consider two ethical standards: nonmaleficence and beneficence. For nonmaleficence and beneficence, when caring for patient we want to make sure we are not causing harm and we are contributing to the welfare of the patient (Cooper, 2016). In this case, I would feel we are causing more harm than good by keeping her on all the medications she is in, patient is in danger of overdose.  Needs a peer response from a student nurse practitioner’s point of view with references Health Science Science Nursing NURSING MSN 571 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)