Originally Posted by
Tammy
When the joint commission decided to make pain the fifth vital sign, everything started changing. Pain control - it's whatever the patient says it is and they have the right to have it treated. The joint commission is now backing away from that idea because of this crisis. Things are shifting back slowly to the way it was before, but patients didn't get the memo and become very angry when we don't get them every narcotic they request. Violence ensues against hospital workers because of this dynamic.