Documentation of pain varies widely among healthcare facilities, with most hospitals considering pain a “vital sign” alongside the more traditional heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure. There is a universally used standard pain intensity rating scale that allows patients to quantify their pain from 0 to 10. The scale also includes a visual representation of faces exhibiting increasing degrees of distress for use with nonverbal or demented patients or those unable to read. Using this scale, 0 represents no pain at all, while 10 represents the worst possible pain that a patient could imagine. Between those are degrees of mild pain (1-3), moderate pain (4 or 5), severe pain (6 or 7), and very severe pain (8 or 9). Using this standard scale allows for accurate clinical assessment and informs analgesic treatment decisions.
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Children's pain scale.
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