Pain and its relevence with culture and ethics

The paper ” Pain and Its Relevance in Culture and Ethics” is a brilliant example of an assignment on health sciences and medicine. Pain and its recognition, management, and treatment is an area within medicine and clinical practice that involves a number of concerns. Legal, cultural and ethical issues are inescapable, no matter who the patient or the doctor is. One of the main goals of the field of medicine is ‘ Maintenance or improvement of the quality of life through relief of symptoms, pain, and suffering.’ When the doctor and the patient differ in ethnicity, identification, diagnosis and treatment can become, difficult through language or other cultural differences. It can have legal implications. I chose this area of research because of my concern with multi-cultural issues in medicine. It is a field of endeavor that suits my temperament and interests me deeply because of its ability to solve significant problems and help those who need it most. To improve a patient’s quality of life and relieve pain, communication and understanding are paramount. The doctor and other medical staff need to establish a means to gain understanding of the patient’s language and customs, through interpreters if necessary. Sensitivity to cultural peculiarities is very important, and gender issues (among others) might be magnified instead of diminished. In some cultures, for example, it is simply not ethical for a female patient to discuss certain conditions with a male doctor. In palliative care, where pain management is of vital importance, I feel that assessing a patient’s pain threshold, understanding levels of discomfort, and determining religious and other limitations as to the taking of drugs can mean the difference between comfort and misery. I have therefore decided to pay special attention to these important issues in my studies.