Shelagh Wright Discusses Methods of Measuring Patients' Pain

Shelagh Wright, PhD, a retired lecturer from Dublin City University, discusses methods of measuring patients' pain.

Validated scales are used to gauge levels of pain. With a numbers rating scale, patients rate their level of pain between 0 and 10 — 0 feeling no pain and 10 being in the most pain possible. Verbal scales can be used for patients to describe their pain and give a subjective account of what they are experiencing.

“If we don’t know the level of the pain the patient is experiencing, interventions may not be sufficient and pain is under-treated,” Wright said.