1 / 19

WHAT IS PAIN?

WHAT IS PAIN?. Andrea Corkhill-Stevens Registered Nurse. What is pain . What is pain. Shooting Throbbing Numb Sore Burning Agony Sharp. Pounding Cramping Stabbing Tender Aching Annoying Debilitating. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines it as:

annick
Download Presentation

WHAT IS PAIN?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. WHAT IS PAIN? Andrea Corkhill-Stevens Registered Nurse

  2. What is pain ....

  3. What is pain • Shooting • Throbbing • Numb • Sore • Burning • Agony • Sharp • Pounding • Cramping • Stabbing • Tender • Aching • Annoying • Debilitating

  4. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines it as: • An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage.

  5. ‘Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does’ (McCaffery and Beebe, 1989)

  6. Differences between acute and chronic pain Acute Pain Chronic Pain • Less than 6 weeks • Incidence common • Well defined • Reasonably easy to assess • Several weeks/years • Incidence, often neglected • Poorly defined • Difficult to assess

  7. Differences between acute and chronic pain cont.. Acute Pain Chronic Pain • Known cause treatable • Logical treatment • Completely focused on the pain • Often unable to define cause • Reliant on experience and experiments • Pain takes over and becomes part of life

  8. Differences between acute and chronic pain cont.. Acute Pain Chronic Pain • Emotional State / Anxiety • Medication helpful • Results good • Pain is a “Symptom” • Emotional State / Depression • Medication may help • Results often disappointing • Pain is the “Disease”

  9. Pain pathways • Acute and Chronic Pain are different: • Acute Pain • Useful function, warning to protect body from injury • Chronic Pain • Pain no longer serving useful function ongoing/ constant

  10. Prevalence of chronic pain for adults One in six adults reported that they experienced chronic pain, which equates to 528,100 New Zealand adults (New Zealand Health Survey, 2006/07)

  11. The Gate control Theory of Pain • Patrick Wall and Ronald Melzack, 1965

  12. Factors which can influence level of pain Open Gate Closed Gate • Tension, stress, anxiety • Focusing on pain • Inactivity • Loneliness • Depression • Relaxation • Distraction • Activity • Social Support • Positive thinking

  13. P atients A re I n N eed I cant stand this!

  14. “We must all die. But that I can save a person from days of torture, that is my great and ever-new privilege. Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself” (Albert Schweitzer, 1953)

More Related