Special Considerations

Patient Monitoring During Sedation

Patients receiving analgesia and sedation require close monitoring for life-threatening side-effects of medications.

Analgesia and Sedation for Expectant Care (i.e. End-of-Life Care)

An unfortunate reality of our profession, both military and medical, is that we encounter clinical scenarios that will inevitably end in a patient’s death. In these situations, it is a healthcare provider’s obligation to give palliative therapy to minimize the person’s suffering. In these circumstances, the use of opioid analgesics and sedative medications is therapeutic and indicated, even if these medications worsen a patient’s vital signs (i.e., cause respiratory depression and/or hypotension). If a patient is expectant:

*Link to Analgesia and Sedation Management in Prolonged Field Care, 11 May 2017 CPG 15

*Link to Pain, Anxiety and Delirium, 26 April 2021 CPG 16