Recognizing and interpreting what patients are telling us as tools for curing or relieving pain and suffering
Section: Ethics and Society
How to quote
Martínez Santos Y. Reconocer e interpretar los mensajes de los pacientes como instrumentos de curación o alivio del dolor y el sufrimiento. Metas Enferm 2013; 16(1):68-71
Authors
Yolanda Martínez Santos
Position
Enfermera. Máster en Ciencias de la Enfermería. Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos. Hospital General de la Defensa. Zaragoza.
Contact address
C/ Itálica 2, casa 3. 50410 Cuarte de Huerva (Zaragoza).
Contact email: ymarsa2@yahoo.es
Abstract
Feeling pain as well as pleasure is fundamental to human sensitivity, both having a major bearing on the quality of life of the population as a whole. Pain –regardless of the type– has become one of the major public health problems due to its
major socioeconomic repercussion and is a problem surpassing the strictly personal and healthcare-related framework to become a social problem or disorder.
Pain affects not only the person experiencing it by deteriorating their quality of life but also has an impact on families, companies, institutions, etc., as well as on society as a whole, due to the functional disability it causes. The tremendous complexity and the multitude of aspects and variations involved in pain leads to pain not meaning the same thing for one person and another. A great many definitions of pain and suffering have been suggested, reflecting not only how tremendously difficult it is to come up with a precise definition, but also it being impossible to do so, given that each individual who speaks of pain refers to it in completely different terms and context. These are what are known as “languages of pain”, which are an attempt to provide a response to different realities. Healthcare professionals must learn to recognize and
interpret what patients are telling us regarding their pain and suffering by way of both verbal and non-verbal language, as well as that of their disorders, along with the professional interventions of words and attitudes converting them into even more powerful tools for curing.
major socioeconomic repercussion and is a problem surpassing the strictly personal and healthcare-related framework to become a social problem or disorder.
Pain affects not only the person experiencing it by deteriorating their quality of life but also has an impact on families, companies, institutions, etc., as well as on society as a whole, due to the functional disability it causes. The tremendous complexity and the multitude of aspects and variations involved in pain leads to pain not meaning the same thing for one person and another. A great many definitions of pain and suffering have been suggested, reflecting not only how tremendously difficult it is to come up with a precise definition, but also it being impossible to do so, given that each individual who speaks of pain refers to it in completely different terms and context. These are what are known as “languages of pain”, which are an attempt to provide a response to different realities. Healthcare professionals must learn to recognize and
interpret what patients are telling us regarding their pain and suffering by way of both verbal and non-verbal language, as well as that of their disorders, along with the professional interventions of words and attitudes converting them into even more powerful tools for curing.
Keywords:
communicating; languages of pain; painsuffering
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