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Empowering the Pain Patient to Make Treatment Decisions

There appears to be no single pill, potion, or therapy that provides a cure for chronic pain. This is because pain is a complex mélange of emotions, culture, experience, spirit, and sensation. To effectively palliate pain, pain patients must be empowered to be an active and viable part of treatment decisions. As health care professionals, there are many things that can be done to facilitate this empowerment. Some key elements for pain patient empowerment include (a) multidisciplinary pain management, (b) education and information, (c) active patient participation in treatment decisions, (d) being respectful of patient hope and will to live, (e) understanding the need for human connections, and (f) compassion.

Key Words: patient empowerment • pain management • pain • will to live • compassion

Home Health Care Management & Practice, Vol. 15, No. 3, 198-202 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1084822302250685


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