When completing a health history with a patient, the nurse should encourage the patient to describe the symptoms in objective terms. Which of the following is a good example of the description of pain?
1. "This spot seems to hurt more right here."
2. "This pain is the worst pain in the world."
3. "My pain reminds me of when I hurt my foot last year."
4. "I would say my pain is a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10."
4
Encourage the patient to use descriptive terms such as "stinging" or "aching," and ask him to indicate the intensity on a scale from 1 to 10.
PTS: 1 DIF: Cognitive Level: Analysis REF: 1081
OBJ: 2 TOP: Health History
KEY: Nursing Process Step: Assessment MSC: NCLEX: Psychosocial Integrity
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