Nurse-managed analgesia for renal colicpain in the emergency department

Abstract

A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients with acute renal colic for the years 1993 and1997, in order to compare analgesia ordering and administration practices before and afterimplementation of a nurse-managed, titrated intravenous (IV) narcotic policy.The study demonstrated a significant and sustained change in analgesia administration practices awayfrom the intramuscular (IM) route in favour of the IV route. For renal colic, in 1993, 76% of patientsreceived IM narcotic analgesia compared to 3% in 1997. In contrast, IV narcotic (with or withoutadjuvant NSAID) was used in 3% of the patients in 1993 compared to 95% in 1997.