Nursing Management of Low Back Pain

1. Relieves Pain

To reduce pain nurses can encourage patients to bed rest and modification of the position is determined to improve lumbar flexion. Patients are taught to control and adjust the pains that go through the respiratory diaphragm and relaxation can help reduce muscle tension that contributes to lower back pain. Distract patients from pain with other activities such as reading books, watching TV and with imagination.

Massage of the soft tissue, gently is very useful for reducing muscle spasms, improve circulation and reduce the damming and reduce pain. When given the drug the nurse should assess the patient's response to each drug.

2. Improving physical mobility

Physical mobility is monitored through continuous assessment. Nurses assess how patients move and stand. Once back pain is reduced, self-care activities may be performed with minimal strain on the injured structure. Change of position should be done slowly and assisted if necessary. Circular motion and sway should be avoided. Patients are encouraged to switch activities lying, sitting and walking around for a long time. Nurses need to encourage patients comply with exercise programs according to established, that one just does not exercise effective.

4. Health education

Patients must be taught how to sit, stand, lie down and lifting objects properly.

5. Improving the performance of the role

Responsibilities associated with the role may have changed since the occurrence of lower back pain. Once the pain healed, patients can return to his role of responsibility again. But when the activity is impacting on the bottom of back pain occurs again, it may be difficult to return to the original responsibility without bearing the risk of chronic low back pain with disability and depression caused.

6. Changing nutrition and weight loss

Weight loss through eating way of adjustment can prevent recurrence of back pain, by means of the rational nutrition plan that includes changes in eating habits to maintain a desired weight.


Evaluation

1. Experienced pain relief

- Rest in comfort
- Change the position comfortably
- Avoidance of drug dependence

2. Shows the return of physical mobility

- Return to activity gradually
- Avoid positions that cause discomfort which causes muscle
- Plan rest breaks throughout the day

3. Demonstrate body mechanics that maintain back

- Improved posture
- Changing the position of its own to minimize back stress
- Demonstrating the use of good body mechanics
- Participate in training programs

4. Back to the responsibilities associated with roles

- Use techniques facing problems to adjust to stressful situations
- Shows the reduction in dependence on others for self care
- Back to work when the back pain has been healed
- Return to full productive lifestyle

5. Achieving the desired body weight

- Identify the need for weight loss
- Participate in the development of weight loss plan
- Faithful to the weight-loss program

Source : http://nursing-care-plan.blogspot.com/2011/11/nursing-care-plan-for-low-back-pain.html

LBP Low Back Pain Nursing Diagnosis

The lower back is an intricate structure of interconnected and overlapping elements:

• Tendons and muscles and other soft tissues
• Highly sensitive nerves and nerve roots that travel from the lower back down into the legs and feet
• Small and complex joints
• Spinal discs with their gelatinous inner cores.

An irritation or problem with any of these structures can cause lower back pain and/or pain that radiates or is referred to other parts of the body. Pain from resultant lower back muscle spasms can be severe, and pain from a number of syndromes can become chronic.

These lower back pain symptoms include any combination of the following:

• Difficulty moving that can be severe enough to prevent walking or standing
• Pain that does not radiate down leg or pain that also moves around to the groin, buttock or upper thigh, but rarely travels below the knee;
• Pain that tends to be achy and dull
• Muscle spasms, which can be severe
• Local soreness upon touch

Nursing Diagnosis of Low Back Pain

1. Acute pain associated with musculoskeletal problems.

2. Impaired physical mobility related to pain, muscle spasm, and reduced flexibility.

3. Deficient knowledge related to body mechanics techniques to protect the back.

4. Ineffective Role Performance related to impaired mobility and chronic pain.

5. Imbalanced Nutrition: more than body requirements related to obesity.

Physical Therapy and Natural Therapy for Low Back Pain

Lower back pain is the most common type of pain from which people can suffer from during their middle and young age, between the ages of 25 and 55. So, it is very important to understand the activities, which may prolong or exacerbate an episode of lower back pain, and also what to expect when you seek physical therapy. The pain that you feel is actually a symptom caused by some type of injury or disease but in some cases, this pain is a symptom created by having too much stress in your life. For many of us back pain is caused by simple mechanics of our spine such as a muscle or a joint. While it might be quiet painful, most back problems are not serious and very easily treatable. Sometimes our pain occurs in all age groups, but as we grow older we become less active and pain becomes more evident.

To understand how stress affects pain, you need to understand why and how it happens. People are subjected to stress at a very early age. Stress is created by everything from becoming angry over something to grief over the loss of a loved one. After going through a stressful time, it becomes a bad memory that's stored in your unconscious mind. Over the years, these memories begin to build and eventually they start to surface to the conscious mind. As a way for your brain to prevent this from happening, it decreases the blood flow to a certain part of the body such as the lower back.

Physical Therapy for Low Back Pain

Physical therapy is one of the techniques that treat the pain causing conditions by means of the physical maneuvers. This will be useful in many situations and it is a very good choice, because it does not require any surgical or medical intervention and the patients can find much relief from their pain.

In general, the aim of this therapy is to decrease the level of back pain, improve the functionality, and also provide education on the maintenance program to stop further recurrences.

Passive Therapy:

There are several forms of Physical therapy. The therapist focuses on reducing the pain with passive therapy. These types of therapies are considered as the passive therapy because these are done to patient.

• Ice or heat packs
• Iontophoresis
• TENS units
• Ultrasound

Active Therapy:

In addition to the passive therapies, the active therapy is also required to rehabilitate spine. Usually, back exercise program of a patient should encompass the following combinations:

• Stretching
• Strengthening
• Low-impact aerobic exercises

There are many advantages of lower back pain physiotherapy. This will increase the healing speed and also provides relief from pain. To acquire best result, it is necessary to continue the treatment for some days.

Lower back physical therapy is the best way to handle the back pain without taking the risk of hazard of chemicals, which can happen due to the usage of medications, and without having surgical procedures and interventions.

Before getting the physiotherapy for lower back pain, it is better to consult the physician, who examines and determines the actual nature of the existed problem. He may give you some useful suggestion for getting relief from the pain. Usually the advice of physiotherapy is given by the health care provider or a doctor.

Physical therapy for the low back pain is also used to treat the people who are practically disabled due to the pain, i.e. they are unable to function normally. For these people, a combined program of exercise and physical therapy treats them at two levels. The exercise program can stretch the muscles and restore their normal functionality. To prevent the recurrence of further pain, you can continue this exercise even after you get relief from the pain.

Natural Therapy for Low Back Pain

Another alternative, natural therapy for low back pain is soft tissue manipulation or mobilization. This type of therapy is generally performed by a physical therapist, but can also be done by a properly trained massage therapist who you can usually get a referral for through your chiropractor, if they feel it may be beneficial to your particular cause of low back pain. This method involves using the hands to move the soft tissues in such a way that the affected muscle becomes loosened and the natural and proper muscle balance is restored, eliminating stress and overuse in the wrong areas. The physical therapist will also give you a variety of exercises you can do at home to enhance the therapy you receive from them.

While there are still many other alternative, natural therapy methods to help alleviate low back pain, the last one we'll discuss here is acupuncture. While, like most types of therapies, acupuncture does not work for everyone, but because it can be beneficial on a number of levels it doesn't hurt to try it out. Acupuncture is the process in which a professional inserts needles into specific areas of the back in order to unblock the natural pathways in which energy flows through the body. When it works, acupuncture reduces the pain and helps increase your ability to be more active.