Every culture has a different perspective when it comes to pain in the medical world. Cultures like Mexican-Americans, African-American, Chinese-Americans, and Japanese American all have a diverse worldwide view of pain. One’s influence of pain lies within the cultural beliefs, attitude, and value (Alvarado, 2008, p. 4). Pain can occur for many reason; it can be related to a disease and injury or even after a surgery. It can cause your life to change or it can make you take medications every day. Some people experience acute pain that may come suddenly and can be treated, but some may experience chronic pain that will makes your life miserable especially when it uncontrolled. As healthcare professionals, we must analyze cultural values and
In the article, “Sometimes Pain Is a Puzzle That Can’t Be Solved”, Abigail Zuger, the author, describes her own experiences with pain along with some examples and generalizations about the feeling. She claims that she is “ruled by (her) elbow” and “it is (her) constant companion, whimpering, and tugging at (her) sleeve.” She goes on to say that many people have the same problems, especially when drugs, “like naproxen and ibuprofen” are unhelpful and “might as well be cornflakes.” Finally, she explains how far we have advanced in the medical field, but “ none of (the) knowledge has translated into new treatments,” to help people such as herself.
The medical field in relation to varied cultural beliefs and traditions is something that is important to many, yet rarely talked about by almost all individuals. In other words, the cultural clashes created in medicalization is under looked by a multitude individuals. This is because many do not experience the hardships first hand. For that reason, the thought of difficulties within treatments of health issues or illnesses does not cross some individual’s minds. Nonetheless, each group of people is unique, in addition to, how they perceive the medical world.
I am so happy you picked pain as your ICP project. Pain, in my eyes, has always been all encompassing. It can affect sleep, ability to move around, eating, healing, breathing, mood and relationships (Shega, Tiedt, Grant, & Dale, 2014). Personally when I am in severe pain I really do not want people around and it affects every aspect of my life. To think that persistent pain affects 80% of elderly residents in nursing homes and 50% of community dwellers, and we still do not treat this properly (Veal& Peterson, 2015).
Considerable evidence demonstrates substantial ethnic disparities in the prevalence treatment progression and outcome of pain-related conditions. Elucidation of the mechanism underlying these group differences is of crucial importance in reducing and eliminating disparities in these pain experience. Over recent years, accumulating evidence has identified a variety of processes, from neurophysiological factors to structural elements of Healthcare system. That may contribute to shaping individual difference in pain. For example, the experience of pain differentially activate stress- related physiological response across various ethnic groups appear to use differing coping strategies in managing pain complaints treatment decision vary as a function
In the “Pain Scale” Eula Biss explains her thoughts and emotions on the pain scale that is given to patients at the hospital. This scale upsets and frustrates her and she gives details through her own personal experiences and through religious examples. The scale that is given to her at the doctor aggravates her because she does not know how to place a number on the pain that she is feeling, she was more comfortable with her father’s method of asking the patient what they would be willing to do to get rid of the pain. She gives examples in history proving that some philosophers did not even believe in the number zero and she also does not believe that a person who is in pain can give an honest statement about their pain with just ten numbers.
“Did you know that African-American patients often receive less pain medicine than a white person for the same amount of pain?” I asked. “Yeah, I mean, that's weird, but not really surprising. They do tend to abuse their meds…,” the doctor replied indifferently. The racial bias shown in my exchange is not uncommon in modern medicine, as many recent studies report that there is a significant correlation between the quality of care that one receives and one’s race.
In the short story ‘Tiri’ written by Phil Kawana an idea that has changed my perspective on the story is pain. Pain is significant in understanding the main character Tiri and his actions towards people. Tiri experiences external and internal pain throughout the entirety of the story. His experiences with pain teach us how much it can control us, and lead us to make bad decisions.
In this crosspost, the author will elaborate on the original threaded discussion by Ellerbee Mburu, Vail, and Barlow and add additional information on pain assessment and management. Healthcare providers are the major group of healthcare professional who perform crucial functions in delivering and providing nursing care to inpatient and outpatients. As mentioned in the threaded discussion by Ellerbee, Mburu, Vail, and Barlow, undertreated pain causes unnecessary distress and negatively affects the quality of life. In additional to the original threaded discussion, pain is a factor that is thought of differently by many. It has been added as the fifth vital sign and is considered to be subjective.
We all know that pain is usually one of the major complaint of patients with chronic problems or those recovering post operatively thereby making pain evaluation a fundamental requisite in the outcome assessment during hospital visits. Interpreting the data from a pain assessment scale is not as straightforward as it may seem since the provider must consider the intensity, related disability, duration, and affect to define the pain and its effects on the patient (Williamson & Hoggart, 2005). Pain rating scales are used in the clinical settings to measure pain and these include Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), Numerical/numeric Rating Scale (NRS) (Haefeli & Elfering, 2006). Each scale is unique on its own in terms of sensitivity and simplicity that generates data that can be statistically analyzed for audit purposes. The EHR in our hospital utilizes the three rating scales mentioned as part of the pain assessment tool to measure pain that sets the tone for the direction of the type of pain management will .be given to the
Supporters claim that physical pain should be an individual right. They believe that there should be no law that prohibits someone to suffer (Hook, 1989 p. 245). Olvera supports the idea expressing that PAS should be a legal alternative when there is no other form of pain relief (Olvera, 2015). However, Wagner states that there is anther alternative to stop pain and suffering such as training doctors to give more pain relief and anesthesia to patients. Even though some people may fear becoming addicts to theses medications (Wagner, 1998 p. 246).
Since life after surgery is stressful and painful, all the patients had some sort of pain medication, with a majority on opioids. Although they were on all sorts of medications, many complained of intense pain and expressed their frustration as they were a 10 on the pain scale and demanded they be given more, all while smiling. Granted, some of those patients really needed the opioids to control their pain, but in my opinion, most were claiming to be so high on the pain scale as they believed that by doing so, it brought out stronger medications more and more often, even if it wouldn’t be safe. An article in Scope, published by Stanford Medicine, acknowledges this phenomenon, “Today’s cultural ethos of ‘all suffering should be avoided’ encourages patients to believe that any level of subjective pain is unacceptable, and that doctors have a responsibility to remove the pain, lest the patient, in addition to being in pain, is psychologically traumatized by having to experience pain” (Scope Blog). However, in an attempt to change this cultural view, Utah Department of Health has begun to campaign and educate the citizens of Utah about the opioid abuse epidemic in the state with the slogan, “Stop the
Some patients prefer not to take pain medication because they fear addiction or may have a history of substance abuse. Educating the patients on their right to be free of pain and having their pain managed aggressively is a priority in the recovery phase. The goals that I hope to achieve during this clinical practicum
One aspect of medicine that truly intrigues me is the experience of pain. I feel that the patient experience of pain is often overlooked in the medical field. Linking pain with the topic of sociology, I am curious about the relationship between pain treatment and race. For my final paper, I would like to explore how race is linked to disparities in pain treatment and the overarching systematic inequality of healthcare. I think it would be fascinating to explore the statistical discrepancies between differing pain treatment between races and ponder on how to close the gap between them.
Although it may seem easier to the family to push the analgesia for the patient, they must be reminded that the patient is the only one who can truly determine the type and feeling of pain they are experiencing and then have the authority to decide if they need additional medication or
Psychological Assessment and Management of Chronic pain Evaluating a chronic pain condition from a biological perspective is limiting, and often fails to fully explain the patient’s symptoms. In contrast to the biomedical model, which explains pain purely in terms of pathophysiology, the biopsychosocial model views pain, suffering and disability, as the result of dynamic interactions among biological, psychological, behavioral, social, cultural and environmental factors. Consequently, assessment requires not only the examination of the biological dimension, but of the psychological and social dimensions as well. A patient’s experience of pain and response to any treatment for pain are affected not only by biologically determined nociceptive (nervous system transmission) processes, but also by psychological factors such as mood (for example, depression, anxiety) and appraisals (thoughts and beliefs about the pain), as well as by psychosocial factors such as the responses of others (for example, family, friends,