Pain Management

What is pain? If you ask someone to tell you the definition of pain they will typically state something that hurts. Registered nurses should know the definition of pain and how it can be identified on their patients. However, Abdalrahim, Majali, Stomberg, and Bergbom (2010) propose that nurses did not receive adequate education in pain management and suggest the lack of knowledge hinders their ability to adequately control their patients’ pain. Therefore, the unethical treatment of pain can be traced back to nurses.

The author Abdalrahim et al. (2010) stated that nurses are not being properly educated in pain and pain management; in an effort to better form an opinion on this theory, it is imperative that we have an accurate and consistent definition of pain. According to Engebretson, Monsivais, & Mahoney (2006), “Pain results from somatosensory, cognitive and emotional events, and, in the case of chronic pain, neuroplastic changes that alter the physiology and change nervous system responses to various stimuli”. There are two distinct types of pain, acute and chronic. Ferrell (2005) suggest that acute pain can be manifested by different types of trauma (sprained ankle, broken leg, stubbed toe, pulled muscle, etc.), surgical incisions or body parts manipulated during surgery, and even the effects of a cold. Chronic pain can be portrayed as many medical conditions, some examples are: migraine headaches, arthritis, clinical depression, fibromyalgia, and spinal stenosis (Ferrell, 2005). The best definition of pain for nurses to adhere to was stated by Margo McCaffrey (1968), “Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does”.

Patients, if possible, have a right t...

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Copp, L., A. (2006). An ethical responsibility for pain management. Journal of Advance Nursing, 55(1), 1-3.

Engebretson, J., Monsivais, D., & Mahoney, J. S. (2006). Pain management practice ethics. American Journal of Pain Management, 16(1), 21-35.

Ferrell, B. (2005). Ethical perspectives on pain and suffering. American Society for Pain Management Nursing, 6(3), 83-90.

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (2011, January 19). Facts about pain management. Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/pain_management/

McCaffery, M. (1968). Nursing practice theories related to cognition, bodily pain, and man-environment interactions. Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Students’ Store.

Trossman, S. (2006). Improving pain management: Call to action. American Nurse Today, 1(3), 29-30.