Cancer Pain Management: Overcoming Obstacles and Breaking Barriers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Pain is one of the most common and miserable symptoms which occurred in 36-61% of patients with cancer. Cancer pain is recognized as impacting all dimensions of quality of life and it can have physical, psychological, and social consequences. Therefore, it needs to be managed urgently and precisely since this complaint often undertreated. World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a COVID-19 as pandemic on March 11, 2020. This pandemic of COVID-19 possess multiple challenges in pain management nursing; pain complaints that resemble COVID-19 symptoms, restriction of access to health care facilities due to lockdown in some areas, public stigma during the pandemic that causes fear of cancer patients to visit the hospital, and encompassed decision such as deferring or canceling all elective surgical procedures and patient visits. Moreover, pain management services are generally considered as non-urgent in this era and there is a risk of cancer pain patients failing to receive important pain treatment caused by distracted of healthcare professional resources and reduction in services, to both control the spread of infection and to deal with saving lives of those infected. With many obstacles and barriers, any excuses for not providing proper cancer pain management are unacceptable. Nonetheless, healthcare providers should be maintaining the transmission of COVID-19 while giving appropriate pain nursing in patients with cancer. Solutions to these kind of problem are provided, such as developing a system of cancer pain prioritization for in-hospital visits and pain interventions, strict rules while prescribing medication, and providing holistic care using digital applications.

Author(s): Grady Janitra

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