The development of a music therapy pain assessment model

  Pain is often defined by its symptomatology and etiology. Unrelieved pain can negatively impact every area of an individual’s life, including personal relationships, employment, and one’s involvement in social activities. Unrelieved pain may induce fear, anxiety, and depression. Disease management includes the evaluation of pain. Scoring levels of pain frequently is a required measurement listed prominently on the patient bedside flowchart. Evaluating pain is a required appraised and evaluated inquiry- the outcomes of which influences the most pertinent domains of health and healing. As recouperation and discharge planning are so often at the forefront of hospitalists’ thinking, at times the nuances of how pain is evaluated in the quest to find and extinguish associated influences may be lost in the shuffle of a desired immediacy for change. Subtleties that lead toward resulting exacerbations may result from clinician haste. This article presents an overview of the critical elements that are significant to address when considering music therapy applications for the treatment of pain in patients of all ages and diagnoses.