Cultural Responses to Pain:
How Is Suffering Expressed Around the World?
"I know God will not give me anything I cannot handle.
I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."
-Mother Teresa
As part of our Cultural Diversity in Nursing class at Bethel University, we have been asked to create a website that discusses how various cultures around the world respond to pain. This website will include information on how many cultures traditionally respond to and express pain, as well as how we, as nurses, can respond to our patients when they express pain.
Our informational pages are divided by region, with corresponding cultures detailed according to their location on the globe.
We welcome you to take a journey around the world with us so that you can become more educated on what pain means to people from all countries and how to best respond as a culturally competent nurse.
Studies have shown that patients from ethnic minorities and cultures different from the health care professionals treating them receive inadequate pain management. Each of us has the impression that people from distinct cultures are more or less likely to express their pain experience in a manner that is somewhere between quietly enduring (stoic) or very expressive. Just ask yourself this question - what populations do you regularly encounter that are more likely to be stoic or to be expressive? Now ask yourself a second question - do you treat such patients who are stoic differently from those who are expressive? Ideally, the answer would be no, we should treat everyone the same.
What is it about people that directs them to express their pain experience in different ways? Culture is the framework that directs human behavior in a given situation. The meaning and expression of pain are influenced by people's cultural background. Pain is not just a physiologic response to tissue damage but also includes emotional and behavioral responses based on individuals' past experiences and perceptions of pain.
Excerpt Taken From ERPEC
What is it about people that directs them to express their pain experience in different ways? Culture is the framework that directs human behavior in a given situation. The meaning and expression of pain are influenced by people's cultural background. Pain is not just a physiologic response to tissue damage but also includes emotional and behavioral responses based on individuals' past experiences and perceptions of pain.
Excerpt Taken From ERPEC