Pain Assessment Across Populations

By VeriScorePrep Team · 5 min

Pain is what the patient says it is, whenever they can say it. Accurate assessment requires matching the tool to the patient's ability to communicate.

Tools by population

• Verbal adults: 0–10 numeric rating scale or verbal descriptor.
• Infants and young children: FLACC or the Wong-Baker FACES scale.
• Cognitively impaired or nonverbal adults: PAINAD.
• Critically ill, sedated patients: CPOT.

Principles

Assess pain on admission, each shift, before and after intervention, and with any change in condition. Self-report is the gold standard when possible. For patients who cannot report, behavioral and physiologic cues guide assessment, but vital sign changes alone are not reliable pain indicators.

Reassess after analgesia to confirm effectiveness and watch for adverse effects, especially respiratory depression with opioids.