Agony: Dalhousie Pain Group (DPG)

Research has shown that there are several organizations and active advocates who are working on pain management problems to face this public health issue. The following establishments involve: The American Academy of Pain Medicine, Institute of Medicine, and American Pain Society and many for-profit and nonprofit organizations are also working at different level towards pain management. Most specifically, the IOM has been devoted to studying pain and its consequences on individuals, the healthcare system, as well as on government (IOM, 2011).

First pain is an everyday experiences that is expressed through the use of language and is then legitimized (Waddie, 1996). If a patient as a history of depression or chronic pain they have pain every day and the concept is used to help explain their pain. As nurse we use the concept of pain to find a base line of the pain and to assess new pain. In surgical patients they may have multiple types of pain from the incision, emotional, and history. The concept educates the nurse of the different form that pain can present itself. Pain can also guide how we treat the patient. Emotional pain would not be treated with the “so know pain pills”, but with talking or listening to patient. Concept of pain also address the different form of patient and how the nurse and patient response to it. If a patient is having somatic pain from an incision the nurse could react by applying heat or ice. Pain is what the patient says it is.

To most people, pain is a nuisance, but to others pain controls their life. The feeling discomforts us in ways that can sometimes seem almost imaginable. These feelings can lead to many different side effects if not dealt with or diagnosed. These effects can include depression, anxiety, and incredible amount of stress. The truth about pain is that it is vital to our existence. Without the nervous system responding to pain, we would have no idea if we were touching a hot stove, being stuck by a porcupine’s needles, or something else that could leave a lasting effect upon our bodies without us even knowing anything about it.

Pain is not always curable but effects the life of millions of people. This essay examines the Essence of Care 2010: Benchmarks for the Prevention and Management of Pain (DH, 2010). Particularly reflecting on a practical working knowledge of its implementation and its relevance to nursing practice. It is part of the wider ranging Essence of Care policy, that includes all the latest benchmarks developed since it was first launched in 2001.

“Pain is a complex, multidimensional experience that can cause suffering. [While] pain is inevitable, suffering is optional” (Kinder, 2014, p. 114). The control of pain is, as Kinder puts it very complex, without appropriate measures it can be easily side stepped especially in the elderly. To ensure patient center care it is important that all aspect of one’s quality of life is address, this is emphasizing by pain being a component of vital signs. Being a vulnerable population the elderly is often under assessed as they minimized their problems so as not to be a burden in addition to the fact that they may believe that their pain is a normal part of aging.

Suffering can come in several forms; it can include physical pain to emotional distress. The relationship between suffering and physical distress however, is often being neglected in today’s medical world.2 Patients suffer --They wince with pain. They tremble with fear. They lose sleep because of confusion, anxiety, and denial. And, as they suffer, they look to medicine for help. But medicine, increasingly, has not provided them with relief.2

This year everyday Friday in Language I have been working on a project called the 20-Time. The 20- Time project is when we take twenty percent of our time to create a project for the greater good. This concept is being used throughout many schools in the country. Based off this concept many great successes have occurred. For example, Gmail and Google Maps were both created from the 20-Time. What I have been researching for the 20- Time Project is a disorder called Congenital Analgesia. Another name for it is called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP). CIP is a rare condition that inhibits the body’s ability to perceive physical pain. During this project I had many successes, a huge hurdle to overcome, and I learned many things. It is my goal to detail my personal reflections about working on the 20-Time project.

In the article ‘Whose Pain is it anyways? The author discuss that during an ethics seminar that 50% of the request for pain related medications came from the family members and not the patient that is suffering from pain. (Fleischmann, 1998). This brings the question of “whose pain is it anyways”.

What is pain? Generally, it is an unpleasant sensory feeling that is triggered by the body's nervous system in response to an adverse affect and is often categorized as acute or chronic. Because of the many different aspects of pain, it varies from each individual. Experiences that may cause pain in one individual may or may not cause pain at the same level which makes this a highly subjective symptom. Previously, medical professionals relied solely on their patients report of pain. However, as time and medicine have evolved, pain has been incorporated into general patient assessments and has further been referred to as the fifth vital sign,

The American Pain Society (APS, 2008), defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (p.1). According to McCaffery (1968), “pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says is does”. Pain is a complex, multidimensional experience. It is present in all clinical settings and in many different patient groups. It is one of the main reasons why people seek medical attention. Many health professionals involved in pain control (Lewis, Heitkemper & Dirksen, 2004). In order to measure the level of knowledge of medical and nursing staff about pain management in critical care patients and the economic impact I make

‘Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage’ (International association for the study of pain 2014). Pain can be made up of complex and subjective experiences. The experience of pain is highly personal and private, and can not be directly observed or measured from one person to the next (Mac Lellan 2006). According to the agency for health care policy and research 1992, an individuals self-report of pain is the most reliable indicator of its presence. This is also supported by Mc Caffery’s definition in 1972, when he said ‘Pain is whatever the experiencing patient says it is, existing whenever he says it does’.

Although, “The medical model has imposed a discourse of pain that that is always organic in nature and always meaningless. So strong is this discourse that all possible alternative pain narratives have been silenced.” The lecturer say that pain should not be explained only in term Cartesian model; Pain should rather be view in the concept of individual or in the concept of culture therefore pain is not objective. I agree that pain should be

Pain management is an essential component to patient care and nursing procedures. Recognizing the detrimental effects of unrelieved pain, The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JACHO) has recommended standards of pain management, especially with regard to assessment, monitoring and treatment (Harsoor, 2011). Research shows pain too often goes untreated, undertreated, or poorly assessed. In some settings, it has been found that pain has gone undertreated in up to 80% of patients (Walid et al, 2008). Children, the elderly, cancer patients, and postoperative patients are all populations that are at an increased risk for pain and subsequently poor pain management. Pain has a significant effect on a person’s mental status,

Although there can be particular theories about pain for each type of physiology which includes it, there will be no singular, comprehensive theory of pain applicable to all physiologies containing the mental state. Just as “jade” is a conjunction of “jadeite” and “nephrite,” the state of “pain” is just a “conjunction of pain theories” (17). So, psychology is not relegated to the status of “pseudo-science,” but it is restricted in that there is “local reduction” of mental kinds to physical kinds only within a particular physiology

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.