Rev Lat Am Enferm
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In this study we investigate the language used by nurses in the characterization of postoperative pain. In order to do this, an instrument was elaborated containing initially 308 pain descriptors, which were studied as to their apparent and content validity. ⋯ The mean score and standard deviation were calculated for the scores obtained. The descriptors of highest ascriptions were, in a decreasing order: intense, strong, acute, unbearable and continuous; those of lower ascriptions were: circulating, assailing, circular, slow and formidable.
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Control and alleviation of pain in the care to children with cancer are objects of nursing concern in the search for interventions that are able to minimize or avoid physical-emotional problems in these children. Medical, psychological and nursing literatures describe pain through physiological, emotional, behavioural and environmental aspects in several models of scales of pain evaluation and control. This study describes some models of evaluation of pain in children and presents the adaptation of the Scale Model of Visual Analogy of Faces by McGrath (1990), as an instrument to be used in nursing care to children with cancer. Although the literature utilized on this study gives emphasis on the evaluation and control of pain in children with cancer, we verify the viability of applying this model by nursing in other situations of pain.