Savanna Chambers Minute Paper 2 October 15th, 2019

Mindfulness, relaxation and breathing techniques can be used for a wide range of things

within health from chronic pain, cancer and COPD to simply maintaining self-care as a healthy

individual. These techniques are encompassed under complementary and alternative medicine

(CAM). These techniques can be particularly useful in the nursing care and self-management of

chronic pain. I will incorporate these techniques within my nursing practice by helping my patients

with deep breathing techniques, providing therapeutic touch and informing my client about

mindfulness exercises that could help one to cope with pain and anxiety. These CAM techniques

are important for use as a first line treatment before pharmalogical measures are taken, clients who

are still experiencing pain despite taking pain medications and clients who may not be able to take

high doses of pain medication, such as clients with cirrhosis. An example of when I have used

these techniques is when I had a patient with liver cirrhosis who was experiencing 10/10 pain due

to ascites. This patient had no ordered PRN pain medication and was on a low dose of scheduled

acetaminophen. I decided to help this client relax and ease some of his pain by providing him with

a warm blanket, dimming the lights in his room, and encouraging him to try deep breathing

techniques to ease his pain and anxiety. This patient was able to fall asleep eventually and reported

a reduction in pain.