I recently did an audit and found that nurses were not using the scales in our EMR to assign a number to a symptom.
The rationale I received was "well they can't tell me a number so I cannot complete a numerical scale.
In all my years of nursing I have never heard this. I have always used the objective data of what I see during the pt assessment and document the number I feel bst describes the symptom.
I have looked for scales and other than the PAINAD, I do not see many 1-10 tools to assist.
Our weatherbee forms are very specific on pain, not so much SOB/nausea and nonverbal indicators. I use a FLACC scale informally, and just "paint the picture" in great detail of what I see as the patient's experience/response to interventions in my narrative.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
Clearly it is easier to quantify the symptom burden of a verbal and cognitively intact patient. I advocate the use of something like the Edmonton tool.
ShesanRN
48 Posts
Our weatherbee forms are very specific on pain, not so much SOB/nausea and nonverbal indicators. I use a FLACC scale informally, and just "paint the picture" in great detail of what I see as the patient's experience/response to interventions in my narrative.