Pain Assessment Form
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3PAIN ASSESSMENT
To cure sometimes
To relieve often
To comfort always
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Pain is multifaceted and requires thorough assessment. All residents should have a pain assessment,
including location, intensity, and duration in order to determine the cause of pain and appropriate therapy.
Using a reliable standardised assessment scale is useful in addition to performing a clinical assessment,
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which determines the quality of pain and burden on functioning
. Validated assessment tools include:
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Body charts
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Neutral facial expression (such as Wong Baker scale)
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Numerical rating scale
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Abbey Pain Scale
The assessment and monitoring of pain and measuring the effectiveness of pain management is essential
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for effective pain management.
If a person does not report pain does not mean they do not have pain. Evidence suggests that failing to ask
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about pain is the most common cause of unrelieved pain and unnecessary suffering.
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In addition, studies have found older people are less likely to report pain or ask for analgesia.
Dame Cicely Saunders first described Total Pain, which is pain that is not only physical pain, but includes
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cultural, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and social components as well.
Physical assessment of pain:
P
Provocative factors
Ask what makes the pain worse?
Q
Quality
What exactly does it feel like?
R
Radiating
Does it go anywhere else?
How bad is it? (This is when we use a
pain
scale)
S
Severity/Suffering
How much does the pain affect your life?
Is it there all the time or does it come and go?
T
Timing and trends
Is it worse at any particular time of the day or night?
“What does this symptom mean to/for you?”
“How does this symptom affect your daily life?”
U
Understanding
“What do you believe is causing this symptom?”
Does their pain have meaning?
March 2017
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Parent category: Life