Nursing Issues in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Headaches

Abstract

Nurses can play five key roles in headache management: history ­documentation, patient education, participation in follow-up visits and phone calls, and leading groups. Nursing history includes a description of the headaches, allergies, medications, past medical and surgical history, social history, habits, sleep, family history, quality of life, disability information, review of symptoms, and, most importantly, what the patient hopes to gain from the visit. Nurses provide a critical role in patient education about diagnosis. They help monitor consistent preventive medication use, acute medication frequency and efficacy, and appropriate use of rescue strategies. Nurses can teach patients the effective use of headache diaries and how to interpret the results. Nurses can help develop headache support groups. The chapter provides a list of resources for headache nurses to gain the support and education necessary for success in their roles.