The Wisconsin Children's Hospital Pain Scale

for Preverbal Children: A Descriptive Study

Experiences of Nurses Using the University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital Pain Scale for Preverbal Children: A Descriptive Study

Most patients in the hospital setting experience pain. Pain is a subjective phenomenon that varies from person to person. The most relied upon indicator of pain is a patient's verbal report of the pain, but what happens when the patient cannot verbalize his pain? This is the case with infants and other nonverbal patients. They experience pain but are unable to tell a nurse where it hurts, how it hurts, and the intensity to which it hurts. O'Conner-Von (2000) stated "if self-report is not available, physiologic or behavioral measures must be used" (p. 1), and "nurses are the key health care personnel responsible for continuous assessment in children in the health care setting" (p. 1).

Nurses need a reliable and continuous means of pain assessment for the preverbal population. A study of the pediatric pain practices of national heal

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Approximate Word count = 2976
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)