Ronan Castronuevo

ISM- Period 7

Kishner, Stephem, et al. Pain Assessment. Edited by Erik D Shraga, Practice Essentials,

Overview, Technique, 13 June 2016, emedicine.medscape.com/article/1948069-overview.

Pain assessment requires examination of multiple factors such as: the frequency, the
acuity, the condition, the causes, the position, the components to the injury, and any
inhibiting factors to pain assessment.
The first assessment of pain should always be the initial start of the pain and how it
progresses in time; can be constant, unrelenting, or intermittent (Kishner, Technique).
Measuring the acuity of pain can be categorized by single-dimensional scales and
multidimensional scales, which try to be objective as possible.
The single-dimensional scale of pain measurement is linear, as it only assesses the
intensity of the pain.
An example of a single-dimensional scale is the Wong-Baker FACES, which rates pain
using numerical values and images.
The multidimensional scales of pain measurement assess the acuity, the condition, and
the position.
It can also assess how the pain affects the patients behavior and psyche.
They are often used for frequent or complex pains.
The condition of the pain is a completely subjective description, provided by the patient.
They are often described with characteristics such as: crushing, stabbing, burning, etc.
It is important trace the routes of the pain, especially if its in specific areas or organs, as
it can help in diagnosis and the creation of the treatment plan.
The assessment would be to examine the components to the injury, as it is not entirely
obvious.
Some examples of inhibiting factors to pain assessment are the subjective complaints,
nonverbal or patients that are having communication difficulties, different pain
thresholds, and exaggerated symptoms with ulterior motives.
Some patients who abuse opioid medications will often exaggerate symptoms.

Overall, the source was very in depth about the entire process of assessing the pain of patients,
there are even extraneous sections such as the differences between assessing the elderly or
infants, regardless, the entire process was outlined very well and multiple examples are given for
each step.