Surviving Health Care

With the rise of modern medicine and many remarkable advances in medical science and technology, many previously incurable diseases became curable or at least manageable for longer period of time. Pain, in a positive sense, is a defense mechanism and a survival strategy. There are certain individuals with maladies that prevent them from feeling pain, even when they sustain a severe injury. There are two essential components to addressing pain in patient care: assessment and management. Pain often is divided into three broad categories: acute, chronic, and terminal/end-of-life. Chronic pain can be very challenging to physicians, patients who suffer from it, and the patients' families. The common term pain management is used to describe the process by which health care professionals seek to reduce patient's pain to a tolerable level with minimum adverse side effects from any medication that may be prescribed.