Bosdet, Luke;
Herron, Katie;
Williams, Amanda C de C;
(2021)
Exploration of Hospital Inpatients' Use of the Verbal Rating Scale of Pain.
Frontiers in Pain Research
, 2
, Article 723520. 10.3389/fpain.2021.723520.
Preview |
Text
Williams_Exploration of Hospital Inpatients' Use of the Verbal Rating Scale of Pain_VoR.pdf - Published Version Download (918kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Background: Assessment of pain largely relies on self-report. Hospitals routinely use pain scales, such as the Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), to record patients' pain, but such scales are unidimensional, concatenating pain intensity and other dimensions of pain with significant loss of clinical information. This study explored how inpatients understand and use the VRS in a hospital setting. Methods: Forty five participants were interviewed, with data analysed by thematic analysis, and completed a task concerned with the VRS and communication of other dimensions of pain. Results: Participants anchored their pain experience in the physical properties of pain, its tolerability, and its impact on functioning. Their relationship to analgesic medication, personal coping styles, and experiences of staff all influenced how they used the VRS to communicate their pain. Conclusion: Participants grounded and explained their pain in semantically similar but idiosyncratic ways. The VRS was used to combine pain intensity with multiple other elements of pain and often as a way to request analgesic medication. Pain scores need to be explored and elaborated by patient and staff, content of which will imply access to non-pharmacological resources to manage pain.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exploration of Hospital Inpatients' Use of the Verbal Rating Scale of Pain |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpain.2021.723520 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2021.723520 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2021 Bosdet, Herron and Williams. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | analgesics, pain assessment, pain communication, pain measurement, scale interpretation |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10145600 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
