Lesson Plan: Using pain scales

1. What do you think affects a patient’s perception of their pain level?
   Pain perception can be affected by culture (some cultures express their feelings about pain more easily than others), the permission they give themselves to feel pain (some patients do not feel that they should complain about pain), their fear of treatment if patients admit to pain, and their fear of what pain may indicate, e.g. may indicate a serious illness.

2. What are some ways a patient might describe the pain they are feeling?
   Students’ own answers may include:
   Pain may be described as ‘like something’, e.g. like a knife in my side
   Pain may be described in reference to restrictions on daily life, e.g. It’s so painful that I can’t concentrate on my work
   
   
3. How can using a pain scale help both patients and doctors?

It provides patients with a structure to help them label and categorise their pain for something that is very subjective. It helps doctors provide the appropriate pain relief and see how the pain is impacting their ability to function in their daily lives.
Some pain scales also use facial expressions which give non-verbal cues about pain level