Why Use a Pain Scale?
Why should you use a pain scale?
The tools might:
- Get you to consider pain properly in the first place
- Guide your selection of analgesic agents
- Give you an indication of the patients’ response to pain. Whilst the initial score is subjective, the change in patient’s pain score gives the assessment more objectivity, the trend having more meaning than the initial score
- Give an indication of departmental performance regarding pain relief through audit
- Provide valid methodology for the research of pain therapies (a visual analogue scale score change of at least 13 mm is required to achieve clinical significance2).