Pain Assessment Tools

Chronic pain is often defined as pain lasting more than 12 weeks. It may arise from initial injury, such as a back sprain, or there may be an ongoing issue such as illness. The assignment given consisted of finding a person who suffers from chronic pain to explore the ideas of illness classification, the experience of pain and explanatory models. The interview process was executed on September 17, 2016 via face time lasting approximately 45 minutes in length. She gave me her oral consent for this interview. I explained that this information would be used for a chronic pain paper. (American Chronic Pain Association) The subject is a 53 year old, Caucasian, upper middle class female currently in treatment for melanoma cancer. Currently, no disease

What is the point in measuring something that is unique to every individual? In “The Pain Scale,” the author, Eula Biss, attempts to convey her pain to the reader. She tells the reader how she has tried to describe and measure her pain. There is a system set up for doing so, but it leaves much up to individual interpretation. The arbitrary process by which we are supposed to evaluate the level of pain we are experiencing doesn’t seem to accomplish much. Throughout the essay, Biss uses unique ways of comparing the suggested levels of pain to other “scales.” This raises the question, why can the scale, itself, doesn’t do adequate job of helping people understand pain.

One way to assess pain behaviours is to observe them in a clinical setting (although pain is also assessed in a natural setting as the patient goes about his or her everyday activities). Keefe and Williams (1992) have identified five elements that need to be considered when preparing to assess any form of behaviour through this type of observation. • A rationale for observation: it is important for clinicians to know why they are observing pain behaviours. One reason is to identify ‘problem’ behaviours that the patient may be reluctant to report, such as pain when swallowing, so that treatment can be given.

“Pain is much more than a physical sensation caused by a specific stimulus. An individual's perception of pain has important affective (emotional), cognitive, behavioral, and sensory components that are shaped by past experience, culture, and situational factors. The nature of the stimulus for pain can be physical, psychological, or a combination of both.” (Potter, Perry, Stockert, Hall, & Peterson, 2014 p. 141) As stated by Potter et al, the different natures of pain are dealt with differently depending on many factors. Knowing this, treating pain can be very difficult as there is no single or clear cut way of measuring it; “Even though the assessment and treatment of pain is a universally important health care issue,

The ratings for this scale vary from no pain, a zero, to the worst pain one could possibly endure, a ten ('Misha' Backonja & Farrar, 2015).  This type of tool used for measuring pain is considered a self-assessment.  Meaning, the individual rates his/her pain on the provided scale.  All individuals who have received medical treatment, whether for a serious injury or a yearly physical, has been asked, “What would you rate your pain today, on a scale of one to ten?”.  This pain assessment tool is considered a fully ordered variable due to the individual having a wide range to rate his/her

No evidence exists to suggest that older individuals perceive pain to a lesser degree or that sensitivity is diminished. Although pain is a common experience among individuals 65 years of age and older, it is not a normal process of aging. Pain indicates pathology or injury. Pain should never be considered something to tolerate or accept in one's later years.

Pain is one of the most common and feared complications of cancer. It is exacerbated by stress, anxiety, fatigue, and malaise which accompany advanced cancer. Pain is generally absent in the early stages of cancer, but it is a significant factor as the illness progresses to advanced stages. Cancer-associated pain can arise from a variety of direct and indirect mechanisms including direct pressure, obstruction, and invasion of a sensitive structure, stretching of visceral surfaces, tissue destruction, infection, and inflammation (McCance 2010). Pain is generally accepted as whatever the patient says it is, wherever the patient says it is. Treatment of pain and its associated symptoms is a primary responsibility of the healthcare team. Treatment modalities for pain include the use of opioid analgesics, patient-controlled analgesia, psychological interventions, and preventing recurrence of pain. Reinforcing the reporting of pain by the patient is important, as is a respect for the social and cultural differences with respect to pain perception.

Within the article, “Pain Intensity and Pain Interference in Patients With Lung Cancer”, the researchers use a combination of surveys, questionnaires, and lab results to conduct their research. All of the tools are given at a certain time, taken within a certain time

Adequate pain assessment is essential for measuring the efficacy of treatment in clinical practice, provide patient with target pain treatment, and avoid the high number of non-responders.15 Clinically, valuable pain assessment would associate certain signs and symptoms that comprise the pain phenotype with underlying mechanisms.15 Methods such as quantitative sensory testing, functional imaging, skin biopsies and genetic screening are assessment tools provide valuable information regarding the neurobiology of pain.15 However, these tools are expensive, require technical expertise and not suitable for routine assessment of a patient’s pain.15 Therefore, the purpose of this study is to establish biopsychosocial pain profiling of multiethnic

Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients;

The proposed pain assessment system consists of two main stages: 1) face detection and preprocessing and 2) pain expression recognition. We describe each stage in detail below.

‘Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage’ (International association for the study of pain 2014). Pain can be made up of complex and subjective experiences. The experience of pain is highly personal and private, and can not be directly observed or measured from one person to the next (Mac Lellan 2006). According to the agency for health care policy and research 1992, an individuals self-report of pain is the most reliable indicator of its presence. This is also supported by Mc Caffery’s definition in 1972, when he said ‘Pain is whatever the experiencing patient says it is, existing whenever he says it does’.

Throughout this semester, I have demonstrated a basic, multi-dimensional health assessment. I completed a multi-dimensional health assessment on my resident as demonstrated in completing part G of the RCP. Throughout this semester, I learned that as a nurse you will be constantly assessing the patient as soon as you walk into their room. I have implemented the habit as soon as I walk into my patient’s room, I assess his skin, his status of alertness, asking if he has any pain, as well as listening to his heart and lungs; then I do the focused assessment that is required for that day. As demonstrated in my weekly self-evaluations, I have improved on my documentation skills and will continue to improve on this skill throughout my career. I also

The most common reason that people seek medical care is pain, and pain is the leading cause of disability (Peterson & Bredow, 2013, p. 51; National Institute of Health, 2010). Pain is such an important topic in healthcare that the United States congress “identified 2000 to 2010 as the Decade of Pain Control and Research” (Brunner L. S., et al., 2010, p. 231). Unfortunatelly, patients are reporting a small increase in satisfaction with the pain management while in the hospital (Bernhofer, 2011). Pain assessment and treatment can be complex since nurses do not have a tool to quantify it. Pain is considered the fifth vital sign, however, we do not have numbers to guide our interventions. Pain is a subjective expirience that cannot be shared easily. Since nurses spend more time with patients in pain than any other healthcare provider, nurses must have a clear understanding of the concept of pain (Brunner, et al., 2010). Concept analysis’ main objective is to clarify ideas, to enhance critical thinking, and to promote communication (Rodgers & Knafl, 2000). This paper will examine the concept of pain using Wilson’s Steps of Concept Analysis (Rodgers & Knafl, 2000).

With the continuous changes in healthcare, evaluation of students’ clinical knowledge and skills relies on the need for continuous evaluation. Evaluation is the process of using data to make judgements about students’ individual performance. Evaluation of clinical performance provides data from which educators use to judge the extent to which students have acquired specific learning outcomes (Billings & Halstead, 2016). With the use of best practice evaluation methods, clinical performance can be evaluated to ensure quality patient care. Educators face a challenging task when providing evaluation that is fair and reasonable. Tasked with evaluating students in the clinical setting, educators can evaluate how students integrate theory and apply it to real-life situations. Observations of performance in the clinical setting should focus on the outcomes to be met and competencies to be developed (Oermann & Gaberson, 2014). Developing a clinical evaluation tool to determine whether students can think critically, prioritize problems, and complete patient care procedures correctly is essential. There are a variety of evaluation methods to use in nursing education. Depending on the learning outcomes to be measured will determine which tool best evaluates the students’ performance. Clinical practice is an essential and highly significant component of nursing education. Education programs are obligated to respond to government requests for well-educated healthcare professionals.