Pain Assessment Scale for Dementia Patients

423 Words2 Pages
Pain Assessment Scale for Dementia Patients Timothy A. Stryker Assessing pain in patients is usually not difficult for the nurse when the patient can vocalize or coherently indicate the location of the pain and the level of that pain. This is not the case for patients with severe dementia who are non-verbal or unable to communicate their level of discomfort. The Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scale is an easy to use and extremely accurate tool for the medical professional. The PAINAD is specifically designed for ease of use, and only requires a brief training and observation period. Once the healthcare professional has been trained, they can use the scale in less than five minutes. There are five specific indicators that are used to assess the dementia patient; breathing, vocalization, facial expression, body language, and consolability. Each of the indicators are scored between zero and two, with zero being no pain and two being very painful. The score of all five indicators and then totaled resulting in a score between 0 and 10, zero being pain free and 10 being extremely painful. Besides being able to measure the pain level of your dementia patient, a nurse also can benefit from the use of this scale by recognizing the patients unique behavioral patterns. This knowledge, along with the input of family members, gives the nurse valuable information when formulating a care plan for the patient. If a nurse can properly compile and interpret all of the information, they can anticipate any patient needs or routines that the patient follows. This increases patient comfort, compliance, and safety. Understanding and use of this assessment scale is not difficult, but the length requirement of this paper do not allow for inclusion of the details involved with each indicator. The following link will lead you to a video of nurses using the PAINAD

More about Pain Assessment Scale for Dementia Patients

Open Document