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Morphine Drip Guidelines

Authors Created
01/30/97
Reviewed
03/25/97
Revised
08/17/98

There are no suitable objective pain guidelines scales for the population under consideration; accordingly, treatment criteria listed below are largely empirical.

  1. Recommended treatment guidelines include:
    1. all high frequency ventilator patients
    2. conventional ventilator patients with a birthweight of 1000 grams or greater
    3. any ventilator patient who is not "in sync" with the ventilator
    4. any pain-associated situation (e.g. postop patients, chest tube/central line placement, patients with fractures)
  2. Documentation of the presence of a morphine drip is not sufficient. It is imperative that the reason the treatment was initiated, the response to initiation of medication, rationale for continuing and/or weaning it, and finally the rationale for discontinuing it should be clearly established in the medical record at the appropriate time. It is the responsibility of the attending physician to monitor and ensure such documentation is present.
  3. Documentation should include:
    1. Caremap entry
    2. nursing note, daily
    3. resident note, daily
    4. attending note mention the presence of a morphine drip and rationale several times/week

AUTHORS

About NICU-WEB Authorship

Author   David Woodrum, M.D.
Web   Rupert Berk

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