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I was always taught in nursing school that pain is what the patient says that it is. We cannot feel what the patient is feeling, so we have to believe the patient and what they are telling us. “McCaffery defined pain as ‘whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does’” (Huether &McCance, 2017, p.336). Pain effects each and every person differently. There are many different types of pain caused by many different diagnoses and issues. “Acute pain is transient, usually lasting seconds to days, sometimes up to 3 months. It begins suddenly and is relieved after the chemical mediators that stimulate pain receptors are removed” (Huether & McCance, 2017, p.340). When I think of acute pain, I think of getting a shot. A shot hurts while we are receiving the shot but is quickly relieved once the shot is over. “Visceral pain often radiates (spreads away from the actual site of the pain) or is referred. Referred pain is felt in an area removed or distant from its point of origin- the area of referred pain is supplied by the same spinal segment as the actual site of pain” (Huether & McCance, 2017, p.340). An example of referred pain would be left arm pain during a heart attack. Pain that is radiating away from the actual site of where the hurt is. “Chronic or persistent pain has been defined as lasting for more than 3 to 6 months and is pain lasting well beyond the expected healing time”(Huether & McCance, 2017, p.340). We hear of a lot of people struggling with chronic back pain.

Pain can feel throbbing, stabbing, aching, burning, cramping, squeezing, etc. There are different factors that affect pain as well. “There are important age and sex differences in the clinical presentations of chronic pain patients. Some older patients present with unique clinical profiles that may reflect cohort differences, and/or physiological or psychological adjustment processes. There appears to be a greater number of distinct chronic pain presentations among females” (Cook & Chastain, 2001, para.5). Age and gender are just 2 factors that can affect pain and the way it is perceived. “In general, the prevalence of chronic pain has been found to be 50% or more among people aged 65 years or older” (Karjalainen, Saltevo, Tiihonen, Haanpää, Kautiainen, & Mäntyselkä, 2018, p.6). Different diseases that patients have can cause patients to have pain. Ethnicity can also be a factor of pain. If we think about sickle cell patients, it occurs more in African Americans and can cause pain during a sickle cell crisis. Age does not affect who can get sickle cell but can affect pain. Sickle cell presents at birth but usually patients do not have any issues until the age of 5 or 6. Another example would be having a tonsillectomy. Everyone states that the pain and recovery is so much easier on young children than in adults. These examples just go to show that everyone perceives pain differently depending on different factors like age, gender, ethnicity, and diseases.

References

Cook, A. J., & Chastain, D. C. (2001). The Classification of Patients with Chronic Pain: Age and

Sex Differences. Pain Research and Management, (3), 142. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1155/2001/376352

Huether, S. E., & McCance, K. L. (2017). Understanding pathophysiology (6th ed.). St. Louis,

MO: Mosby.

Karjalainen, M., Saltevo, J., Tiihonen, M., Haanpää, M., Kautiainen, H., & Mäntyselkä, P.

(2018). Frequent pain in older people with and without diabetes – Finnish community-based study. BMC Geriatrics, 18(1), 73. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1186/s12877-018-0762-y