Pain is NOT subjective!!

Today I got called into my DON's office, where our executive director--who is not a nurse--yelled at my for charting "Pt. states pain is an "8/10". I listed my interventions, what her response was, etc. ED told me that "If her pain was really that bad, we should be sending her to the hospital. You need to do a full assessment then to see if that corelates to what she's saying." I asked her if she was concerned about drug seeking....

This pt. is A&O x4, has an infection in her hip incision, AND has fibromyalgia, for which she takes methadone 5mg BID. "You need to use the faces scale then if the objective assessment does not agree with what she's saying." And then what? Only give her 1 pain pill instead of the two that I did that reduced her pain to a "3/10"???? Why, why, why would I use the dementia pain scale for someone who is A&O? That is then saying we are not taking our pt's pain complaints seriously.

She had previously stated "7/10" and the day nurse gave her one vicodin and vistaril, she was asking for more within 3 hours...What ever happened to pain is subjective?

And I wonder why I can't get anyone to believe me about MY pain issues. This is Nursing 101: "The patient is always right; Pain is subjective, a sensory experience unique to each indivdual".

Chronic pain sufferers do not cope with pain the same way as people with acute pain. I attempted to argue this point, with the response being "An 8 is acute pain." Period? Says who? Not my patient.

If I talk to the patient and say "If your pain is that bad, we should send you to the hospital. Remember 0 is no pain, 1-3 is mild, 4-7 is moderate, and greater than that is severe. Now is your pain REALLY THAT BAD???" I'm telling my patient that I don't take her seriously.

Piss of, you business worried about your survey PITA!