The Essence of Complementary Pain Relief Methods in Modern Nursing in Ghana: The Concerns of Patients and Nurses

Abstract

Pain is an experience that everyone attest to as has been experienced from time to time and is relatively subjective in nature. It is a complex, multidimensional and subjective phenomenon that is perceived directly by the sufferer and can be described, as Seers (1999:615) puts it, by pain location, intensity, temporal aspects, quality, impact and meaning. It may be psychosocial, economic and cultural in context and is elicited in both verbal and non-verbal expression. According to Melzack & Wall (in Seers, 1999), pain goes beyond a sensory phenomenon, but involves emotional, cognitive and behavioural components and is shaped by the complex interaction of psychological, physiological and sociocultural factors.