Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that inevitably everyone in society will experience at some stage throughout his or her lifespan, and every individuals experience will differ from that of another’s (Mac Lellan, 2006). This maybe due to any number of factors that can affect an individual, such as age, gender, emotional state, culture, or previous encounters with pain (Funnell, Koutoukidis, & Lawrence, 2005). In this reflective assignment I will discuss not only how some of those contributing factors affected a pain episode that I recently experienced. But also how an inability by medical staff to carry out a simple pain assessment and to prescribe and administer adequate pain management impacted on my quality of life. To adequately do this I first need to explain what causes pain, state what the medical profession defines as pain, and describe how untreated pain can affect an individual.
Pain is caused by a stimulation of the sensory nerve endings from a harmful source or stimuli, with inflammation being the primary cause (Harris, Nagy, & Vardaxis, 2006). Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and are categorised as acute or chronic in nature (Harris et al., 2006). Acute pain begins suddenly and tends to be severe, usually lasting less than 6 months in duration (Mac Lellan, 2006). While chronic pain is prolonged persistent pain that last longer then a period of 3-6 months (Mac Lellan, 2006). Pain can also be classified by the site or location of the area affected (Farrell, 2005). Cutaneous pain originates from the skin, and tends to be localised (Funnell et al., 2005). Somatic pain can either be well or poorly localised depending on the area affected, and can originate from bones, mus...
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Conclusions. An adequate and clear understanding of the concept of pain and implementing interventions of pain treatment and management is essential in the clinical settings. Understanding the concept of pain is necessary for its relationships with other concepts that are related and similar to the pain experience for theory building. The in the end, understanding the concept of pain will ultimately benefit the patient and lead to better and approp...
Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients; however, Fitzgibbon and Loeser (2010, p.190) stress that pain may often be undertreated, even in the UK. Foley and Abernathy (2008, p.2759) identify numerous barriers to effective pain management, among which are professional barriers such as inadequate knowledge of pain mechanisms, assessment and management strategies.
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The core skill that was involved in the last clinical placement was regarding pain assessment and management. Pain was defined as an unpleasant experience from the sensory and emotional aspects that usually involved the tissue damage in the body (Fields, 2007). Pain was classified into acute or chronic. Acute pain was a direct biological response to inflammation, tissue damage, or disease. Acute pain usually lasted less than one month. Acute pain was usually accompanied by anxiety and emotional distress. Chronic pain comprised of pain that lasted longer than a month following the healing of a tissue injury. Chronic pain persisted or recurred for three months or longer. Chronic pain was either continuous or intermittent (Frey, 2005). Pain caused by tissue damage, was called as nociceptive pain, and pain caused by nerve damage, that was named as neuropathic pain. Pain that was affected by psychological factors was known as psychogenic pain. The origin of psychogenic pain was either in tissue damage or nerve damage, relevant to the factors as fear, depression, stress, or anxiety. Pain assessment was essential to be carried out as the basis to frame out pain management interventions. The main focus of pain assessment was to express pain in terms of intensity, nature, location, duration and aggravating or easing factors. These lead to an exact template to carry out pain assessment in patients with acute and chronic pain (Fink, 2000, p.236). Pain management was an interdisciplinary approach, comprised of all interventions that were applicable to ease pain and also to alleviate the cause of the pain (Schonbeck and Uretsky, 2013). The rationale in selecting the core skill , which was pain assessment and management, was due to the impor...