Final answer:
Nursing assistants can perform basic comfort measures such as ensuring a comfortable position, applying heat or cold therapy, offering distractions, encouraging relaxation techniques, and providing emotional support to help alleviate a patient's pain.
Step-by-step explanation:
Nursing assistants can provide essential support to patients experiencing pain after surgery or due to various medical conditions. Basic comfort measures are non-pharmacological ways to help alleviate pain and can be vital for patient care.
These include:
- Ensuring the patient is in a comfortable position, adjusting pillows and supports as needed.
- Applying heat or cold therapy where appropriate, for example, a warm blanket or a cold pack, to help soothe sore areas.
- Providing distraction through conversation, music, or television to shift the patient's focus away from the pain.
- Encouraging deep breathing and relaxation techniques that can help with pain management.
- Offering emotional support and reassurance, which can help reduce anxiety and improve pain perception.
These measures, along with the professional care team's efforts, including the surgeon, nurse, and anesthesia professional, who review aloud the key concerns for recovery, are part of a holistic approach to pain management.