Comparison of Pain and Ethnicity in Women Experiencing Labor

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Comparison of Pain and Ethnicity in Women Experiencing Labor Sylvia Duren, Taylor Gates, Jonathan Servoss Florida Gulf Coast University Background Pain is a multifaceted, debilitating symptom that affects many patients that nurses come in contact within the healthcare setting. The textbook definition of pain provided by the International Association for the Study of Pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Lewis, Heitkemper, Dirksen, O’Brien & Bucher, 2007). The way the human body processes pain can be described as nociception, which is the neurophysiologic process that involves the transmission of tissue damage to the central nervous system (Lewis et al., 2007). There are four mechanisms involved in nociception: transduction, transmission, perception and modulation (Lewis et al., 2007). Pain is a partially subjective symptom, but this does not negate its existence in the patient. Fifty percent of people, who seek medical treatment from the emergency department, have a chief complaint of pain (Meghani & Cho, 2009). Healthcare providers may find that using an all encompassing approach to pain assessment and treatment will produce improved outcomes in patients. This approach includes recognition of the multiple dimensions of pain perception and expression which include the physiologic, affective, cognitive, behavioral and sociocultural aspects of pain (Lewis et al., 2007). The affective, cognitive, behavioral and sociocultural dimensions of pain are different for each patient. It is imperative not to judge patients based on preconceived notions and stereotypes. These encounters of pain are not the same for any person, but specifically vary throughout cultures and are determined by healthcare providers. Caucasians and African Americans

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