Self Report In Children

Introduction and Background

Although there has been a great deal of studies carried out on paediatric pain, the John Hopkins Children’s Centre (2012) believes it is still common for hospitalized children to experience pain. Perquin et al. (2000) state however that there is still little known about the epidemiology of the pain in children. The John Hopkins Children’s Centre (2012) carried out a study on hospitalized children showing that 86% of children experienced pain throughout their time in hospital. For many children, it is common for them to be unable to express their feelings of pain, relying on the nurse to recognise and interpret the level of pain they may be experiencing. The Royal College of Nursing (2009) stress the important responsibility

(2010) self report remains the gold standard when assessing a patient’s level of pain. McCaffrey (1968) believes that pain may be defined as “whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does”, is therefore why self report is essential when carrying out a pain assessment, in order to fully understand what the patient may be experiencing. However both Von Baeyer (2006) and Voepel-Lewis et al. (2002) stress the importance of assessing the child’s cognitive ability, their level of understanding and ensuring they are not overly distressed when reporting their own level of pain. Assessing the child’s level of understanding can help ensure an accurate result is obtained. Von Baeyer (2006) believes that when a child can fully understand a pain assessment tool and is provided with age appropriate assessment tool, it can provide a reliable source of information for the nurse. Craig and Badali (2004) believe that although self reports are a valuable input into pain assessment it is essential to factor in observation of the patients behaviour, parental involvement and factoring in the child’s social environment. Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) is an example of a commonly used self report pain assessment tool, which Von Baeyer (2006) states is very popular when assessing a child’s level of pain due to not requiring any equipment. Despite extensive research being carried out on the reliability of the NRS in an adult setting, for some reason there has been little research carried out in a children setting to prove its’ reliability (Von Baeyer 2009). Von Baeyer (2006) believes that NRS may be seen as an unreliable pain assessment tool as although young children may be able to provide a number rating it can be difficult to assess whether they fully understand the true meaning of the number rating provided. However, despite Von Baeyer’s beliefs, Fanurik et al. (1998) carried out a study on 8 year old