Pain is a distressing sensation commonly experienced with injuries, infections, and disease.
This includes pain scales and charts commonly used after major surgery or when managing chronic pain conditions.
This article describes the various tools used to assess pain in children and adults.
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Understanding What Pain Is
Pain is an unpleasant sensation telling you something in your body is wrong.
Even so, the NPRS-11 may be useful in assessing the effectiveness of pain management therapies over time.
It may be less helpful in other groups as the interpretations are very generalized.
The child is assessed for two to five minutes if awake and five minutes or more if asleep.
The VRS is assessed on a scale of 0 to 4 using different adjectives to describe extremes in pain.
It is intended for adults and children 10 years and over who have a grasp of the terminology.
Examples include:
The VRS aims to characterize the nature of pain.
Role of Palliation and Provocation
Palliation and provocation are important tools used to assess pain.
First, a healthcare provider will want to know what makes your pain better (or palliates it).
Then, they will want to determine what makes the pain worse (or provokes it).
Palliation is especially important when prescribing drugs.
In contrast, provocation aims to find out where the pain is and what causes it to intensify.
It could be resulting from lying on a particular side.
chewing solid food, or applying pressure to the hip while standing.
During a physical exam, the healthcare provider will often manipulate a limb to see if pain is provoked.
These insights can help narrow the possible causes of pain and or direct the appropriatephysical therapy plan.
Take note of whether the medications or treatments were effective.
Also, write down anything they may have told you about what makes it feel better or worse.
This is a great way to team up with your healthcare professionals to provide the best palliative care possible.
you could help by recording your pain experience in a pain journal, including as much detail as possible.
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