Nurse education today
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Nurse education today · Jul 2002
Determining the accuracy of pain assessment of senior student nurses: a clinical vignette approach.
Pain is a commonly identified clinical problem and if not relieved, patients will suffer. Accurate pain assessment is essential for effective pain management. A theoretical model of factors has been constructed for this study, indicating how clinical signs can affect the accuracy of pain assessment by student nurses. ⋯ Of all the student nurses, 40.8% (69/169) considered the subjective report of patients as the most reliable indicator of pain. The remaining senior student nurses (100/169 (59.2%)) tended to ignore this subjective sign of pain and relate the objective signs for pain assessment. It is recommended that the undergraduate curriculum in the aspect of pain assessment needs to be reviewed for a sound theoretical foundation of pain, and that the bias in pain assessment be corrected.