A pain management nurse is a type of nurse whose responsibility is to help ease the pain in patients. She does this by administering medications, monitoring pain, determining the patient’s condition and progress and taking vital signs to know if the medications have any adverse effects on the patients. A pain management nurse can be found in a number of medical settings. She works in hospitals, outpatient treatment facilities, rehabilitation agencies and nursing homes. Like other nurses, a pain management nurse undergoes extensive training. If you want to assume this nursing career in the future, you’ll need the appropriate nurse education and training. Pain management education for nurses can be obtained through traditional nursing schools or from a great online college.
Here’s how to enter the pain management nursing profession.
- Complete educational training. The basic educational training for a pain management nurse is a bachelor’s degree in nursing. This nurse training should be completed from an accredited nursing school. This four-year bachelor’s degree is comprised of lectures, laboratory activities and supervised clinical training.
- Pass the licensing exam. The licensing exam for nurses is called the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Passing the exam means earning the title of Registered Nurse (RN).
- Obtain practical experience. Earn at least two years of experience as an RN. Your beginning registered nursing jobs will usually be in the emergency room and critical care unit, which will prepare you for your target designation as a pain management nurse.
- Pursue advanced certification. Certifications in advanced practice nursing (APN) and nursing practitioner (NP) will lead you to becoming a pain management nurse. But in order to attain such certifications, you need to complete a master’s degree and take continuing education units. With these certifications, you can perform a variety of functions beyond the normal duties of an RN. These include prescribing medications.
- Know and sharpen the skills needed for the job. As a pain management nurse, you should be able to communicate with patients well. Remember that the medications you will administer are based on the information you will get from an interview with your patient, and if there is a single glitch in your communication, there is a possibility of you administering a wrong medication. You should also be quick to think and act, since you need to speedily administer treatments to alleviate your patients’ pain. Other than these, you need to be analytical and observant to recognize any allergic reaction or abnormalities the patients may develop after the administration of medications.
- Learn the job outlook. Generally, registered nurse jobs are continuously increasing; these include employment opportunities for pain management nurses. Although hospitals remain the primary employer of pain management nurses, jobs are available in other medical settings such as treatment facilities, outpatient agencies and hospices.
To compensate for the expert nursing care and long and expensive educational and practical nurse training, pain management nurses are paid relatively high salaries. If you take this medical job, you can earn anywhere from $76,000 to $107,000. Benefits are also part of the compensation package. This kind of compensation is typically enough reason to take on a pain management nursing career, but this shouldn’t be the sole motivation. The thought that you can help individuals experiencing severe pain should be your main driving force when entering this career in nursing.