Pain

 

Assessing pain

• Early recognition of the type of pain is crucial for appropriate management; any patient complaining of pain should be assessed and treated as quickly as possible
• Patients may suffer from pain related to pre-existing conditions
• It is important to ask patients on a regular basis about any pain that they may be experiencing
• As pain is subjective, simply asking patients about their pain levels on a scale of 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain ever) is useful in assessing levels of pain
• If patients have cognitive or communication problems, it may also be useful to observe or ask family members/carers if they have observed non-verbal behaviours such as grimacing, changes in mood, avoidance of certain tasks or use of a particular part of the body
• Visual analogue scales are also sometimes used to assess pain. For example:

No pain <-----------------------------------------------------------------------> Worst pain