Pain Management Is Like Cooking
Article Outline
There are a surprising number of similarities between cooking and the results of the consumption of food and pain management and the effectiveness of pain treatment methods. Being a chef and a pain management provider requires education. Education is very important especially if you want to be paid for preparing food or providing pain management. Education has been the rallying cry for pain care advocates for the last four decades.
There are many recipes for both the cook and the pain management provider. In any book store the cooking section always seems to be massive and have something new on the shelf. There are books for everything from slow cooking to many, many ethnic foods. Pain management providers can use equianalgesic tables, algorithms, a myriad of drug books, the drug manufacture insert, and by consulting with a pharmacist.
People have allergies to some types of food and to some analgesics. The severity of the reaction varies for both. I once saw a patient have a severe anaphylactic reaction to anchovies. He knew he was severely allergic but didn’t realize his pizza box was below another customer’s who had anchovies on that pizza! A milder reaction to food could be vomiting after eating scallops or pruritis after eating the offending food. In pain management many patients will say they are allergic to an opioid. When further questioned about the reaction, some will claim nausea or constipation. We know those are side effects. Other people may have an anaphylactic reaction to a particular opioid.
Science is another similarity. Anyone who bakes knows there is a big difference between baking soda and baking powder- they aren’t interchangeable. There is a lot of chemistry research in both cooking and pain management. Many other sciences are necessary for both areas. Agriculture, farm management, veterinary medicine, proper storage, and preparation sciences are necessary for cooking and consuming food safely. Pain management requires the science gleaned from pathophysiology, pharmacology, chemistry, engineering and medical technology. There are more.
Addiction to food consumption is possible and also with addictive analgesics. The former may be more difficult to manage since everyone needs to eat while there are many other ways to relieve pain. Both require cognitive behavioral techniques to conquer the addiction.
Practice makes perfect in both the kitchen and in pain management. Education is part of practice but the more one comes into contact, the broader the area of knowledge and subsequent skills. Chefs learn how to properly fold or chop ingredients while people who manage pain learn how to give injections, calculate doses, and manage the equipment that may be necessary to deliver the analgesic. With practice the results improve.
Some people really enjoy cooking and some people do not enjoy caring for people in pain. The reasons could relate to some of the similarities mentioned; education, experience, degree of the translation of science into practice or unfamiliarity with the wide number of methods needed.
The science behind pain management is always producing a new product or method of delivery. As we all know one of the problems mentioned with patient controlled analgesia is human error in setting up the pump (Ladak, Chan, Eastu & Chagpar, 2007). Everyone knows it is difficult to have or afford the very latest in technology. Convection cooking as new method took a while to catch on. How many people burned food when the microwave was introduced?
It is sad that one can receive a bad meal and very poor pain management. Both areas try to improve via quality control, improving education, receiving the latest technology and showing that you care. Since the problems are multifactorial, it may be why pain management has not improved as much as we had hoped. The reason for bad meals is anyone’s guess.
Reference
PII: S1524-9042(08)00029-5
doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2008.01.002
© 2008 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
