Cold is a basic pain management technique for local skin pain.
- Ask the person to rest while providing reassurance.
- Gain consent to provide (and document) treatment.
- Manage any signs of the venomous creature:
- non-tropical jellyfish—pick off any jellyfish tentacles with your gloved fingertips then rinse the sting area well with seawater to remove invisible nematocysts (stinging capsules)
- bees—remove any bee stings.
- Apply a wrapped cold pack or ice to the sting site for 10–20 minutes and ask the person to rate their pain level from ‘no pain’ (0) to ‘worst pain possible’ (10).
- Reassess the person’s level of pain by asking them to rate it again.
- Reapply wrapped ice or cold pack if necessary.
- Send for help if cold fails to relieve the person’s pain, or if unable to manage other symptoms.
Note
- A cold compress may be used at irregular intervals for periods of 5–15 minutes to reduce pain.
- Remember the Wong–Baker FACES® pain rating scale may be used with young children, adults with a disability or adults from non-English speaking backgrounds to help communicate changing pain levels over time.
- Cold treatment may also be used to relieve pain from most spider and insect bites.
When heat and cold is not available
If hot water is not available, or if there are not enough cold packs or ice stores available, do NOT use any other unauthorised treatments—they may cause further stinging or harm the person.
- Make the person comfortable and provide reassurance.
- Spray seawater on the area of the sting, using a fine spray.
- Repeat this as often as necessary, constantly monitoring and reassuring the person.