Summary Of The Pain Scale By Eula Biss

The psychological processes in the article include pain perception, and how we as humans perceive pain, how we react to it, and how we adapt to it. The article explains the pain signaling process and how pain can be amplified. For example, when we get pricked by a needle, a signal from our finger ascends through the spinal cord to reach parts of the brain. From there, we perceive pain, then we form a pain experience. Pain perception can be resulting from several factors such as the frequency of pain input, how sensitive the CNS is, How the body reacts after brain perceives and tries to send information to the injured area. A pain experience is when we have the urge to put a band aid on our injury, or be scared to get pricked from a needle again. However, each pain experience differs from one culture to the other, moreover, one person to the other. The article is conducting a research paper about pain and pain perception in different ethnic groups.

Pain is not only defined as a sensation or a physical awareness, but also entails perception. Moreover, pain is an unpleasant and an uncomfortable emotion that is transferred to the brain by sensory neurons. There are various kinds of pain and how one perceives them is varied as well. Certain parts of the brain also play a key role in how one feels pain such as the parietal lobe, which is involved in interpreting pain while the hypothalamus is responsible for the response to pain one has. Although some believe pain is just a physical awareness and is in the body, pain is all in one’s mind because the perception of pain and the emotion that controls its intensity differs in individuals and when pain itself is administered to the body, the brain determines the emotions one attaches to each painful experience.

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.

In Diane Ackerman’s essay “Pain,” she ponders about the subjectivity in experiencing pain, how to define pain, and its role in human life. She begins by emphasizing that an individual’s ability to endure pain may depend more on culture and atmosphere than on the actual magnitude of the pain. Given that at times humans can forego pain for a spell because of their atmosphere, Ackerman elucidates the importance of surroundings in how one experiences pain by exemplifying her claim through a phenomenon in football players. Ackerman continues her discussion on the disparities in the reception of pain by asserting expectations delineate the painfulness of events. Strengthening her claim that tradition affects pain, Ackerman considers how cultures

This paper will define the term pain and how it pertains to the comfort theory. Next, there will be discussion from relevant literature in regards to pain. Its defining attributes will be

First pain is an everyday experiences that is expressed through the use of language and is then legitimized (Waddie, 1996). If a patient as a history of depression or chronic pain they have pain every day and the concept is used to help explain their pain. As nurse we use the concept of pain to find a base line of the pain and to assess new pain. In surgical patients they may have multiple types of pain from the incision, emotional, and history. The concept educates the nurse of the different form that pain can present itself. Pain can also guide how we treat the patient. Emotional pain would not be treated with the “so know pain pills”, but with talking or listening to patient. Concept of pain also address the different form of patient and how the nurse and patient response to it. If a patient is having somatic pain from an incision the nurse could react by applying heat or ice. Pain is what the patient says it is.

A challenge Wiesel and Beah face is dealing with pain in all forms of it. In A Long Way Gone, Beah took some bullet wounds during war. In A Long Way Gone Beah states,“How did you get these scars? Bullet wounds” (Beah 248). Beah experiences physical pain in this instance, which relates

In the article “The Pain Scale”, Biss is giving a proposal to definition of the pain scale. The author scaled the pain in a numeric values represented by a scale from zero to ten. First, is the zero scale. As Biss described herself as some one who generate question instead of answering them, she thinks that pain cannot be eliminated. Meaning, zero cannot explain a situation, just like its numerical value, we cannot apply some computational operations to it. Then, the author goes to explain how zero is interpreted in Celsius and Kelvin. To illustrate her point, she used the chicken as an example. The concept of the chicken example is that when we grab the chicken by its feet and the chicken is not complaining, that does not mean that the chicken is in no pain. The moral of zero pain is that either the pain cannot be expressed or it can not be felt. Second, the author started with the stories of how she was taught what is pain and who invented the scale of zero to ten pain scale. For example, Biss’s father told her that an itch is just a damaged tissue. Biss then asks a very complex question, she said “When does pain worth measuring? With poison ivy? With a hang nail?… A razor cut?” This shows how complex it is to judge where the pain begins. Even with a trained hospice nurses, not every pain can be identified. Biss conclude the scale one by assuming that zero and one are close to each other to the point where they might equal each other. Third, the scale number two starts

Scarry envelopes her argument in the elusiveness of the sharing of pain that the relative presence of bodies does not necessarily

Pain is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that is subjective and unique to each individual. Pain is difficult to describe and often hard to measure; however, most healthcare professionals agree that pain is whatever the patient describes it to be. Pain is one of the most frequently used nursing diagnosis and is the most common problem for which patients in the clinical setting seek help (Cheng, Foster, & Huang, 2003). Unrelieved pain can have a profound impact on the lives of both the patient and his or her family members. The subjective nature of pain makes pain difficult to assess; therefore, many patients do not receive adequate relief. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

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.

Pain is subjective, meaning it is whatever the experiencing person says it is. People tolerate pain differently. Mr. Clark has a low tolerance for pain according to the rate of 8 on the pain scale. As a result, he needs a

‘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’.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defined pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Unk, 2007). Pain being described such as this allows us to see that pain is a perception, not unlike seeing or hearing. Pain is the most common reason that people seek medical attention but pain is very hard to define because it is subjective. Pain perception is the process by which a painful stimulus is relayed from the site of stimulation to the central nervous system (Freudenrich, 2008). In order to determine if pain is a perception of the mind or if it is biological we must first understand how the process of pain works.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.