Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Challenges in Pain Assessment

2009; Elsevier BV; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jopan.2008.10.002

1532-8473

Chris Pasero,

Pain Mechanisms and Treatments

LAST YEAR WAS the 40-year anniversary of Margo McCaffery's landmark definition of pain: "Pain is what the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does."1 This definition has been supported by decades of clinical trials of analgesics and other pain research. All accepted pain guidelines today reflect the philosophy of McCaffery's definition, reinforcing that the patient's self-report is the single most reliable indicator of the existence and severity of pain.2-5 Most health care facilities have implemented policies and procedures that mandate this evidence-based approach to pain assessment by requiring nurses to systematically obtain pain intensity ratings, in addition to other elements of assessment, whenever the patient is able to provide them.