LibGuides: Clinical Practice Supports: Nursing Skills and Procedures: Pain Assessment and Documentation

Key Practice Points

Use pain rating scales that are tailored to the patient’s needs.
Be sensitive to hearing and language barriers. Maintain an awareness of cultural differences in the way pain is expressed.
Daily assessment of pain may be necessary. Listen for words that may be used to describe feelings other than pain. For example, burning, ache, sore, etc.
Assess personal history of past medication misuse.
Review documentation, such as PRN MAR, to spot trends where pain may be relevant.
Medicate for pain based on a valid scale. Use appropriate pain meds for elderly (Beers Criteria) and don't overmedicate, which can lead to increased confusion, delirium, and falls.
Try pain analgesic medication as needed or as required before care for 2-3 days to see if it calms behavior. If so, ask for regular dosing.

Policies, Guidelines and Patient Education Pamphlets

Epidural Analgesia and Catheter Removal - Non-Obstetrical - Policy and Procedure - NSHA SS-PM-001
Pain Management - Care Directive - NSHA CD-EC-050
Location Applicability:
Emergency Departments
Urgent Treatment Centres where approved for use.
Collaborative Emergency Centres
Eastern Shore Memorial Hospital Urgent Care
MC-NB-001 Skin-to-Skin Contact for Healthy Term Infants

Nova Scotia Health Learning Management System (LMS) Catalogue
You must sign in to search for a course. To sign in, enter your domain\username (e.g. cdha\doej) and password. Once signed in, select Catalogue tab. Copy course title or code, paste it in the Keywords search box and select Search.

NOTE Microsoft Edge is the optimal browser for LMS. More information: The Compass: Learning Management System

Course Title	Course Code(s) or Link
Skin to Skin Contact (SSC) for healthy term Infants	0498.01
Effects of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact and the long-term mother-child relationship	0982.01

The Power of a Parent's Touch [Video]
Centre for Pediatric Pain Research at IWK Health and Dalhousie University

Kids Hurt App
ACHH

Dynamic Health Skills with Workplace Notes

Scales

Age Group / Population

General Pain Management

Post-Operative

Epidural Catheters

Forms and Order Sets

Form Number	Form Name
CD2723MR_03_2014	Abbey Pain Scale Long Term Care
NSOSEDPMP	Order set Emergency Dept - Pain Management - Pediatric
NSOSEDPMA	Order Set Emergency Dept - Pain Management - Adult
NSPCDAR	Emergency Dept - Pain Care Directive Administration Record

To view the standardized order sets and nursing documentation, please select the electronic forms repository link for your zone below. Then search for the appropriate form.

Central Zone:
- https://healthforms.cdha.nshealth.ca/
Western Zone, Northern Zone, Eastern Zone:
- http://dc-sv-efrns/

For forms that are not able to be printed on site (these have a watermark “For Reference Only”):

Go to Nova Scotia Health's The Compass.
Under Forms, look for the Dal Printing Services Requisition Form.
Complete this form and email it to print.nsha@dal.ca.

The NSHA/IWK Forms Inventory Listing can also be found on the Forms page of The Compass. This Excel spreadsheet is a reference tool intended to be used during downtime of the main repositories noted above.