A nurse is beginning a new position working in a pain management clinic. On her first day, her precepting nurse asks her what the four phases of pain are, in sequential order. Place the four phases in the correct order.
A. modulation
B. perception
C. transmission
D. transduction

Pain is a highly complex phenomenon that is experienced and described differently by each person. The correct sequential order of the four phases of pain are transduction (painful stimuli are changed to nerve impulses by the nervous system), transmission (the impulses travel from the site of origin to the brain), modulation (the body’s activation to the needed inhibitory responses to pain), and perception (the brain recognizes, defines, and responds to pain).