Kwanei Holloway
Austin Peay State University
Abstract
Pain has always been a major factor in healthcare. This paper will describe pain as it relates to nursing, medicine, and physical therapy. All of the information gathered is analyzed in reference to how pain relates to hospital stay, rehabilitation, and prevention. I will ultimately give an overall picture of the importance of pain and how it relates to nursing as well as other disciplines.
Introduction
This paper is a concept analysis of what is known as the fifth vital sign PAIN. As stated by Hsiao, Wu, & Chen (2013), Nursing staff are the major group of healthcare professionals who perform crucial functions in delivering nursing care to inpatients. I will attempt to describe pain as it relates to nursing, medicine, and physical therapy. When selecting a concept, I began by thinking what is an important factor in the nursing field and could be analyzed in more detail. Pain is a factor that is thought of differently by many. It is a very subjective factor and that applies to the patients, physicians, and nurses. Yes, it is the patient that feels the pain but it is the physician who writes the orders and the nurse who transcribes it. I then figured that this area of nursing practice would be a great concept to analyze.
Pain is a feeling triggered in the nervous system. Pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant. You may feel pain in one area of your body, such as your back, abdomen or chest or you may feel pain all over, such as when your muscles ache from the flu. Pain can be helpful in diagnosing a problem. Without pain, you might seriously hurt yourself without knowing it, or you might not realize you have a medical problem that needs treatment. Once you take care of the problem, pain usually goes away. However, sometimes pain goes on for weeks, months or even years. This is called chronic pain. Sometimes chronic pain is due to an ongoing cause,
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