A post surgical patient tells the nursing assistant (NA) her pain is an 8 on a 10 scale. The NA tells the nurse the patient is exaggerating and does not need pain medication. The nurse's best response is:

Question

A) Pain often comes and goes with post surgical patients; please ask her about the pain again in about 30 minutes.
B) We need to provide pain medications because it is the law and we must always follow the law.
C) Professionally, I believe "pain is what ever the patient says it is."
D) Patients often misreport pain "to get our attention when we are busy."

Answer 1

Ans: C
Feedback: A broad definition of pain is "whatever the person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does" (McCaffery & Pasero, 1999). We treat pain when the patient reports it is above an acceptable limit based on a pain scale, which usually is 3 on a 10 scale. Pain is always included as a part of any assessment and therefore needs to be verified by the nurse. Option A is incorrect; pain that is 8 on a 10 scale needs to be treated. Option B is incorrect; providing pain relief is not a law but failure to provide pain relief could be considered abusive treatment. Option D is incorrect; nurses who believe that patients "often misreport pain to get our attention when we are busy" are misinformed.