Prompt Cast
The Importance of Pain Scales in Quantifying and Managing Pain
TLDR Pain scales are crucial in the medical community to better understand and manage pain. Self-reporting pain scales, such as numerical or word-based scales, are commonly used by adults, while the Wong Baker faces pain scale is designed specifically for children. However, doctors also rely on behavioral cues and nonverbal checklists to assess pain in patients who are unable to self-report, although accurately interpreting these cues can be challenging.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
This episode of the podcast is about pain scales and the different methods doctors use to measure pain.
04:58
The medical community is realizing the need to better quantify levels of pain in order to improve pain management.
09:57
In the 1940s, researchers used a light and heat method to compare pain to labor pains, but it was not reproducible and led to the invention of the Dolorometer pain unit; meanwhile, Kenneth Keel suggested simply asking people to rate their pain on a scale, which eventually became the standard.
14:49
In the 40s, Dr. Kenneth Keele came up with the idea of a subjective self-reported pain scale, which became popular in the 60s.
19:34
Self-reporting pain scales are important because not everyone experiences pain the same way, and adults are generally good at rating their pain using numbers or words, such as "severe" or "intolerable." The worst pain imaginable is the highest level on the scale, and injuries like burns are often considered the most painful. There is also a pain scale called the Wong Baker faces that was developed in the 80s specifically for children.
24:31
The Wong Baker faces pain scale was developed for children who may not be able to accurately report their pain using numbers or color charts, and it includes drawings of faces ranging from smiling to tears.
29:14
Self-reporting pain scales can be problematic due to obfuscation and reluctance to talk about pain, especially among the elderly, but doctors can use other words to get patients to describe their pain, and there are also behavioral cues, such as facial expressions and sounds, that can indicate pain.
33:56
Self-reporting pain scales can be problematic due to obfuscation and reluctance to talk about pain, especially among the elderly, but doctors can use other words to get patients to describe their pain, and there are also behavioral cues, such as facial expressions and sounds, that can indicate pain.
38:20
Doctors can use nonverbal checklists and observational scales to assess pain in patients who are unable to self-report, such as cognitively impaired elderly individuals or infants, but it can be challenging to accurately interpret behavioral cues due to other needs or conditions that may be affecting the patient's behavior.
43:16
There are various pain scales that aim to measure pain in different ways, and they can be found by searching on howstuffworks.com.
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Society & Culture
