PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MANAGING, SC

Pain management is a popular topic for nursing students and one that is covered primarily during years 2 and 3 of pre-registration nursing courses. Caring for patients involves understanding and knowing how to manage and treat their conditions and illnesses, and the pain associated with them. An understanding of the mechanics of pain, how pain affects individuals and how pain can be treated is absolutely core to nursing study and practice and nurses need to be able to identify, assess and treat pain responsibly and as part of their broader care for patients.Pain is also a complex subject which needs to be skillfully taught and integrated with other topics. The authors deliver a distance learning Pain course, from which the book is being developed, and as such the book will include lots of learning tools and features to help explore concepts, self-develop and acquire critical thinking skills - all essential throughout the nursing course. The emphasis of the book will not be on facts, physiology or pharmacology, but instead the book will draw on these things to help students develop a solid philosophy of care that encompasses good pain management. The book will also cover the patient perspective in depth and will have a problem-solving ethos that explores pain as a core aspect of care giving.

Gareth Parsons is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sport and Science at the University of Glamorgan, UK. He is the Award Leader for the BSc (Hons) Managing Pain degree and a member of the UK Pain Society and the Welsh Pain Society.

Wayne Preece is Principal Lecturer (distance education development) at the Faculty of Health Sport and Science at the University of Glamorgan, UK.