Pain Assessment System

What is the point in measuring something that is unique to every individual? In “The Pain Scale,” the author, Eula Biss, attempts to convey her pain to the reader. She tells the reader how she has tried to describe and measure her pain. There is a system set up for doing so, but it leaves much up to individual interpretation. The arbitrary process by which we are supposed to evaluate the level of pain we are experiencing doesn’t seem to accomplish much. Throughout the essay, Biss uses unique ways of comparing the suggested levels of pain to other “scales.” This raises the question, why can the scale, itself, doesn’t do adequate job of helping people understand pain.

Pain threshold is the point when a stimulus causes pain. Pain threshold limit varies between everyone and the reason for that is because of the genes you inherited from your ancestors. Controlling these genes can result in higher pain threshold or higher pain sensitivity, as the pain threshold depends on your genetics. Sensing pain has been a survival trait for all mankind, making us avoid scenarios that will harm our body. Although having a sense of pain is very useful, what if we are able to control when we feel pain and how much we feel? Both cases have their positives and negatives.The average set of COMT genes is one Valine form of the gene, and one Methionine, the normal pain threshold.The version of your COMT gene depends in your genetics, the combination creates your pain threshold, and the COMT and be used in the medical field.

Conceptual analysis is integral in understanding nursing theory. According to Walker and Avant (1995), concept analysis allows nursing scholars to examine the attributes or characteristics of a concept. It can be used to evaluate a nursing theory and allows for examination of concepts for relevance and fit within the theory. The phenomena of pain will be discussed in this paper and how it relates to the comfort theory.

No evidence exists to suggest that older individuals perceive pain to a lesser degree or that sensitivity is diminished. Although pain is a common experience among individuals 65 years of age and older, it is not a normal process of aging. Pain indicates pathology or injury. Pain should never be considered something to tolerate or accept in one's later years.

Measuring Pain 1. 1. Sensory - intensity, duration, threshold, tolerance, location, etc 2. 2. Neurophysiological - brainwave activity, heart rate, etc 3. 3. Emotional and motivational - anxiety, anger, depression, resentment, etc 4. 4.

Chronic pain is often defined as pain lasting more than 12 weeks. It may arise from initial injury, such as a back sprain, or there may be an ongoing issue such as illness. The assignment given consisted of finding a person who suffers from chronic pain to explore the ideas of illness classification, the experience of pain and explanatory models. The interview process was executed on September 17, 2016 via face time lasting approximately 45 minutes in length. She gave me her oral consent for this interview. I explained that this information would be used for a chronic pain paper. (American Chronic Pain Association) The subject is a 53 year old, Caucasian, upper middle class female currently in treatment for melanoma cancer. Currently, no disease

Demographic transition: A demographic transition is when a country or population moves from a state where there is a high birth and death rate, to a state where there is a low birth and death rate.

The main behavioural indicators are facial expression, activity, crying/verbalisation, posture and muscle tone (Herr et al., 2011; Srouji, Ratnapalan & Schneeweiss, 2010). Pre-schoolers experiencing severe pain may exhibit a particular facial expression, with eyebrows furrowed and the eyes tightly closed (Srouji, Ratnapalan & Schneeweiss, 2010). They may display pain through restlessness and lack of concentration, whilst verbalising their pain experience through simple phrases like “ouch!”, and with high pitched crying (Srouji, Ratnapalan & Schneeweiss, 2010). Their muscle tone and posture may also be tense and stiff, with the legs drawn upwards towards their chest (Voepel-Lewis, Shayevitz & Malviya, 1997). Ability to be consoled may also be observed, as children who are not soothed by nurturing behaviour from caregivers are likely to be experiencing higher levels of pain (Voepel-Lewis, Shayevitz & Malviya, 1997). There is a variety of assessment tools that score these observations, to give the health care practitioner an indication of the intensity of the pain. One example of this is the FLACC tool which stands for face, legs, activity, cry and consolability (Voepel-Lewis, Shayevitz & Malviya, 1997). A variety of studies have proved this tool to be a reliable, easy to use pain assessment method in children who are aged between two months and seven years (Herr et al., 2011;

Effective management of pain intensity among non-verbal or pre-verbal children during sonography procedure is considered as a major challenge regarding its pervasive diagnostic value in pediatrics clinical care setting. Evaluating current behavioral scales and identifying risk factors associated with pain and collaboration scores may help to identify functional coping

‘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’.

“Playing with Pain,” by Michelle Crouch in December, 2016, teaches us that focusing too much on one sport is not very good. Studies show that specializing in one sport actually has the opposite effect of what people think or say about it. Crouch write in the article about the experiences of Kellen Sillanpaa, a young athlete. The central idea is that if a person specializes in only one sport, there could be consequences. Some of the consequences are having pains, not being able to play a sport or do normal activities, and having a lower chance of success later in life.

The most common reason that people seek medical care is pain, and pain is the leading cause of disability (Peterson & Bredow, 2013, p. 51; National Institute of Health, 2010). Pain is such an important topic in healthcare that the United States congress “identified 2000 to 2010 as the Decade of Pain Control and Research” (Brunner L. S., et al., 2010, p. 231). Unfortunatelly, patients are reporting a small increase in satisfaction with the pain management while in the hospital (Bernhofer, 2011). Pain assessment and treatment can be complex since nurses do not have a tool to quantify it. Pain is considered the fifth vital sign, however, we do not have numbers to guide our interventions. Pain is a subjective expirience that cannot be shared easily. Since nurses spend more time with patients in pain than any other healthcare provider, nurses must have a clear understanding of the concept of pain (Brunner, et al., 2010). Concept analysis’ main objective is to clarify ideas, to enhance critical thinking, and to promote communication (Rodgers & Knafl, 2000). This paper will examine the concept of pain using Wilson’s Steps of Concept Analysis (Rodgers & Knafl, 2000).

Pediatric pain management is measured subjectively because it is based off of what the patient says or how the nurse interprets the pain scale. Pain is rated using different scales, unfortunately these different scales could yield different results. Nurses are trained to use pediatric pain scales to analyze and treat pain but parents are not supplied with the tools to manage pain when the patient goes home. With 84% of all pediatric surgical procedures performed on an outpatient basis, the importance of teaching parents how to assess for and manage pain has become more important than ever (Rony, Fortier, Chorney, Perret, & Kain, 2010). According to Rony’s et al. (2010) study, it is apparent that pediatric pain is not being treated effectively. The study showed that 58.8% of children were receiving less than the daily recommended does prescribed by the pediatrician (p.1). Results of the study also showed that parents had false assessments on if their child was actually in pain. 36% of parents believed that if their child was in pain, they would cry out for the parent , 30% agreed that their child would always tell them if they are in pain, while 22% said that the child would report their pain immediately (Rony, Fortier, Chorney, Perret, & Kain, 2010, ). Children do not always verbalize when they are in pain. Sometimes the pain can be so intense that a child is unable to talk. If the child catches on to the parents negative perception of pain medications, the child may not

Being optimistic is the main principle for most people. We may often hear the statement about “be an optimist, not a pessimist!” shouted by people. Sometimes you do it for yourself too. When facing such a failure or problem, this will not only help to relieve your heart. Being optimistic will help someone to be healthy in physical and mental. An optimist will find the best way in any circumstance and hope for every good thing can come to him/her. You may have gone through thousands of hard times. However, if you are a born optimist then you will not care of anything destructing you.

Halloween is one of the oldest existing holidays celebrated around the world but it’s also a holiday that has found itself cast in a controversial light over the years. It’s celebrated during the time of year, between the bustling, hot summer days and the joyous holiday celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Many people look forward to the Halloween festivities for the fun, creative, community interaction. The holiday encompasses the idea of children, dressing up, handing out candy, costume parties and fun; but for some, it’s a holiday based on fear and misconceived notions about its history.