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Numerical rating scales (NRS), verbal rating scales (VRS), and visual analog scales (VAS) on a 10-cm continuum are the scales used to attain these ratings. Melzack and Torgerson developed the McGill Pain Questionnaire which rates pain quantitatively by sensory, evaluative, and affective descriptors.
The visual analogue scale is a common, reproducible tool in the assessment of pain and pain relief. [65] The scale is a continuous line anchored by verbal descriptors, one for each extreme of pain where a higher score indicates greater pain intensity.
Pain scales are tools that can help health care providers diagnose or measure a patients pain's intensity. The most widely used scales are visual , verbal , numerical or some combination of all three forms.
Pain is often regarded as the fifth vital sign in regard to healthcare because it is accepted now in healthcare that pain, like other vital signs, is an objective sensation rather than subjective. As a result nurses are trained and expected to assess pain .
The McGill Pain Questionnaire, also known as McGill Pain Index, is a scale of rating pain developed at McGill University by Melzack and Torgerson in 1971. [1] It is a self-report questionnaire that allows individuals to give their doctor a good description of the quality and intensity of pain that they are experiencing.
For example, the Depression scale has items involving physical, emotional, and cognitive content (as opposed to only questions about mood or interests). Each scale also assesses a range of severity for that scale; for example, the Suicidal Ideation scale has items that range from vague ideas about suicide to distinct plans for self-harm.
Although pain is subjective and can occur in a continuous spectrum of intensities, there are assessment tools that compare pain levels over time. This kind of assessment incorporates pain scales and requires a high enough developmental level for the child to respond to questions. [12] A verbal response is not always necessary to quantify pain.
The AVPU scale (an acronym from "alert, verbal, pain, unresponsive") is a system by which a health care professional can measure and record a patient's level of consciousness. [1] It is mostly used in emergency medicine protocols, and within first aid .