Culture’s Effects on Pain Assessment

Culture’s Effects on Pain Assessment

Cultural diversity has been a concept that has continuously been emulated in many countries as a premise of enhancing cultural beliefs of various minority groups in society. Through cultural beliefs, most of these minority groups have showcased both the societal and national cultural involvement. However, most of these cultural beliefs have adversely affected the principle, under which health care services can be provided effectively. Each diverse culture group tends to associate the pain their people experience with certain cultural beliefs, which, as a rule, put them at high risks of endured suffering. Such cultural diversity has affected the manner, at which health care service providers, such as nurses, assess and offer effective health care services in managing the patient’s pain. This paper discusses the effect of culture on the assessment and management of pain. It highlights how cultural identity affects the patient’s pain experience, which in turn affects the pain assessment and management. Moreover, it highlights best health care practices that nurses should use in countering the effect of culture in pain assessment and management.

According to Narayan (2010), cultural diversity, which primarily dictates psychological, social, spiritual, and physical characteristics of various cultural groups, has adversely hindered the assessment and management of pain. She points out that the health care agents, especially nurses, have been challenged not only by the language differences, posed by cultural diversity, but also by cultural practices that patients inhibit on pain assessment and prevention. This paper discusses the effect of culture on the assessment and management of pain. It highlights how cultural identity affects the patient’s pain experience, which in turn affects the pain assessment and management. Moreover, it highlights the best health care practices that nurses should use in countering the effect of culture in pain assessment and management.

Effect of Culture on Pain Assessment and Management

Narayan (2010) points out that the cultural involvement has influenced the intensity at which patient’s tend to tolerate the pain experience. She notes that some patient believe in impassiveness, according to which they avoid vocalizing the sensational pain experience they are enduring. For instance, as a ruler, patients, which associate pain with weakness, tend not to admit that they are experiencing such sensational feelings. On the other hand, she points out that, as a ruler, some cultural groupings exaggerate expression concerning the pain which at times challenged nurse’s ability to assess the magnitude of pain. Generally, this affects the nurses’ ability to understand the magnitude of the pain; thus, it makes it hard for them to prescribe effective treatment to manage the patient’s suffering.

Moreover, Narayan (2010) points out that, as a ruler, some patients use their spiritual belief, which originates from their cultural practices, in describing the level of pain they experience. For instance, she points out that some of the Native American patients commonly use some sacred numbering model instead of the standardized linear numerical scale in describing the intensity of the pain. This unfamiliar pain assessment procedure usually makes nurses incorporate inadequate pain control measures that are not able to manage the patient’s pain effectively.

On the other hand, Ylinen (2010) notes that the culture also plays a role in the way, in which nurses assess and help manage pain. She points out that some nurses tend to apply their own feeling and experience of pain to every individual. As a ruler, such nurses see abnormality in patient’s response towards pain, especially when they do not match their personal pain experience. They, therefore, offer little health care services to help manage such pain. Moreover, she points out that nurses, who are unfamiliar with cultural pain medication therapy, embraced by some cultural groups, may discourage the use of such pain medications unintentionally.

How to Effectively Enhance Culture in Assessing and Managing Pain

According to Ylinen (2010), nurses can easily counter the effect of culture in pain assessment and management if they possess credible background information on how the patient’s culture percepts pain. He points out that such knowledge gives the nurses ample opportunity to identify the cultural pattern of pain experience, which might be ignored by them during pain management. On the other hand, he notes that nurses should embrace an approach of medical interpretation, which involves a family member of the patient interpreting the person’s pain experience. This would enable the nurse and the patient to acquire adequate pains assessment information, thereby enhancing effective pain management process. Moreover, Narayan (2010) points out that nurses should initiate open-ended explanatory model approach, not only in determining patients’ cultural perception of pain, but their beliefs of best ways in managing pain. Such strategy would create a coherence approach in the assessment and management of pain.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cultural diversity is a stumbling block for effective assessment and management of pain in patients. The paper has pointed out the crucial need for nurses to study the cultural background of patients, so as to diagnose and manage their pains appropriately. Moreover, there is a need for both the patient and nurse to collaborate in the provision of these services together, so as to assess and mange patient’s pains effectively.