Pain And Its Effects On Health Care Professionals

Pain is not only defined as a sensation or a physical awareness, but also entails perception. Moreover, pain is an unpleasant and an uncomfortable emotion that is transferred to the brain by sensory neurons. There are various kinds of pain and how one perceives them is varied as well. Certain parts of the brain also play a key role in how one feels pain such as the parietal lobe, which is involved in interpreting pain while the hypothalamus is responsible for the response to pain one has. Although some believe pain is just a physical awareness and is in the body, pain is all in one’s mind because the perception of pain and the emotion that controls its intensity differs in individuals and when pain itself is administered to the body, the brain determines the emotions one attaches to each painful experience.

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).

Chronic pain has four mechanisms. Nociception is a neural signal of threatened or damaged tissue, and is the classical pain pathway. Central pain states are thought to be caused by abnormal activity in neurons in the afferent pathway. The mechanism for this is not completely understood, and a person may perceive pain where there is no tissue damage. Behavioral pain is communicated by a

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.

“Pain is much more than a physical sensation caused by a specific stimulus. An individual's perception of pain has important affective (emotional), cognitive, behavioral, and sensory components that are shaped by past experience, culture, and situational factors. The nature of the stimulus for pain can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both.” (Potter, Perry, Stockert, Hall, & Peterson, 2014 p. 141) As stated by Potter et al, the different natures of pain are dealt with differently depending on many factors. Knowing this, treating pain can be very difficult as there is no single or clear cut way of measuring it; “Even though the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue,

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.

JCAHO (2011) also stated that patients and their families needed to be educated about pain and how the patients’ pain is going to be managed. Every patient perceives and exhibits pain in a different manner and if nurses do not assess the patient thoroughly they can miss it. For instance, Engebretson et al. (2006) acknowledged that, patients manifest pain in different ways and this resulted in nurses performing an inadequate assessment of their patients’ pain. Also, Engebretson et al. recognized that patients often conceal their pain because they do not want to be viewed by staff as complainers or addicts, and if patients decide to speak up the nurses frequently view their patients’ statements from their own cultural, moral and ethical belief system and not their patients which leaves the patients’ pain untreated.

Pain is one of the most influential symptoms that leads individuals to reach out to health care professionals to seek relief. Pain is subjective and unique to each person. Some individuals may have a higher pain tolerance than others. According to Frandsen (2014), “Pain is an unpleasant, sensory, emotional sensation associated with actual or potential tissue injury” (p. 889). Pain may be caused by a variety of elements, such as tissue or nerve damage and surgery. There are three main categories that pain is classified by, which are origin, duration, and cause. The main focus of this paper is on acute pain, chronic pain, and phantom pain. It is crucial to know how to assess each type of pain, as well as how to enhance it, or decrease the pain.

The etiology of chronic pain is complex and may be due to a number of different factors. Current therapeutics often fail to produce adequate analgesia for moderate-to-severe pain

‘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’.

Chronic Pain is an interesting problem in society today. The exact cause of Chronic Pain is not the same in every patient. In fact most patients present with different symptoms and associated pathologies, such as the strong link with depression. Treatment of Chronic Pain is often performed a single practitioner whether that be a Medical Doctor, Chiropractor, Nutritionist, or an alternative health care professional. Chronic Pain is often extremely complex, because of this treatment needs to be multidimensional. Effective care of Chronic Pain requires the collective cooperation of health care professionals

Pain is an individual human experience and can expressed only by the person experiencing the pain (Ford 2015) .The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage”. Pain management is a challenging and major responsibility of a nurse . However inadequate knowledge and attitude towards the pain management make the patient suffer unnecessarily. In this case study I would like to provide summary of a patient who admitted with severe left hip pain after an unwitnessed fall . The purpose of this case study is to achieve more knowledge and skills to learn assessment and management of pain effectively in the clinical area. Through this case study I hope to improve the quality of care and to improve my learning experience. Moreover, this study will discuss about the types of pain and pathophysiology , pain assessment and pain management .

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.

This paper is going to talk about how to deal with chronic pain. First of all, this paper will explain what chronic pain means by providing the foremost chronic pain encountered in life such as low back, joints, or other kinds. Next, this paper will cover why it is important to address conditions related to chronic pain, and will explore methods and strategies showing how to cope with continuing pain. Finally, this paper will share some predictable outcomes and a conclusion.

Pain is a basic mechanism in life that helps the body identify that something is wrong or dangerous. Without pain, the body would be severely damaged without realizing it. Pain can become an inconvenience when it spirals out of control; chronic pain, for example, leaves many miserable and unable to enjoy life to its fullest extent even with traditional medical intervention. Around 80% of people report chronic pain in their lifetime (Holtzman & Beggs, 2013). People afflicted by chronic back pain turn to modern medicine for relief, but even these alternatives are not always 100% effective.