Assignment: Pain is Multidimensional

Assignment: Pain is Multidimensional

Assignment: Pain is Multidimensional

the client’s

perspective in the design and delivery of

care, and to create a sacred space for

carrying out the holistic caring process

thwarts achievement of the mutually sought

after goal of healing. By embracing the

broader and deeper view of care offered by

the theory of integral nursing, the nurse and

client collaborate in the development of

trusting relationships as they intentionally

strive to improve client outcomes and

ultimately enhance client, nurse, and

provider satisfaction with care.

Background

Pain management has remained enigmatic

for clients and healthcare professionals for

decades. When caring for clients, pain is the

most common symptom for which nurses

need to intervene, yet it continues to be one

for which they may be least prepared to

successfully mediate (Lui, So, & Fong,

2008; Montes-Sandoval, 1999; Wilson,

2007). Pain is a multidimensional,

subjective phenomenon and experience.

As such, the meaning and impact of any

pain experience differs for each client,

family member, nurse, and provider. Many

definitions of pain have surfaced over

the last four decades and offer multiple

interventions to alleviate clients’ pain. At the

2007 council meeting for the International

Association for the Study of Pain (IASP),

in Koyoto, Japan, the council confirmed its

1992 definition of pain as “…an unpleasant

sensory and emotional experience

associated with actual or potential tissue

damage, or described in terms of such

damage” (www.iasp-pain-org). In its

monograph on understanding, assessing,

and treating pain, the American Pain Society

supports both the IASP definition of pain

and McCaffery’s definition of pain as

“…whatever the experiencing person says

it is, existing whenever s/he says it does”

(APS, 2006, p. 4; McCaffery & Passero,

1999, p. 17). While the IASP definition

has been described as the most widely used

definition of pain, McCaffery’s definition

has gained substantial support over the past

30 years and is widely used in clinical

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.