The first step in treating pain effectively is properly assessing it. A number of tools and protocols are available to clinicians to guide them in pain assessment, including scales for pain rating and guidelines for special populations.
Health professionals should always remember that the patient's own report of pain is indispensable in assessing and treating it. Objective tests and data often correlate poorly with the level of pain experienced, and the key diagnostic tool of simply listening to patients should be fully utilized.
It is just as important that initial assessments be followed by regular reassessments in order to gauge the efficacy of treatment and emerging needs. Reassessment is appropriate upon each new report of pain from the patient and soon after a treatment intervention.
- Initial Pain Assessment Tool (PDF Download)
- Pain Assessment PDQ (National Cancer Institute)
- Initial Pain Rating Tool for nurses (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, PDF Download)
- Nursing Assessment and Care Plan (City of Hope National Medical Center, PDF Download)
- Pain Assessment in the Cognitively Impaired
- General recommendations for pain assessment in the nonverbal patient
- Guidelines for Good Practice — Recognition and Assessment of Acute Pain in Children (Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health)
- Pain, Suffering and Spiritual Assessment Tool (PDF Download)
- Collection of pain and symptom evaluation tools (National Palliative Care Research Center)
- Additional pain assessment links (City of Hope Beckman Research Institute)
Pain Rating Scales
- Collection of pain rating scales (Clinical Resource Center of the National Initiative on Pain Control, PDF Download)
- Pain intensity scales (National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium)
- Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia Scale (PDF Download)
- Links to pain assessment scales for infants and children