Pain tool for nonverbal, dementia, alzheimers, and terminal patients

[jyhn]

Hi all,

We are trying to incorprate an easy to use tool in our assessment for the above population. Are there any you particularly like and also any tips or suggestions would be a great help. Thanks in advance, Judy

[saribeth]

We use the FLACC SCALE...We make copies for the families to have in the home so they can also do an assessment...just go on the web and type FLACC SCALE and pull up the Nat'l Hospice and Palliative Care Org site...I could not find it by just going into their web site! It's a fairly good tool!

[Sabby_NC]

Thank you thank you thank you for the FLACC SCALE.

I have been looking for something similar. Appreciated seeing this thread. :)

[dosamigos76, RN]

Here is the scale we use for patients with dementia or are nonverbal. It's the PAINAD Scale.

http://www.hartfordign.org/publications/trythis/assessingPain.pdf

Assessing Pain in Older Adults with Dementia

By: Ann L. Horgas, RN, PhD, FGSA, FAAN, University of Florida College of Nursing

There is no evidence that older adults with dementia physiologically experience less pain than do other older adults.

Rather than being less sensitive to pain, cognitively-impaired elders may fail to

interpret sensations as painful, are often less able to recall their pain, and may not be able to verbally communicate it to care

providers. As such, cognitively impaired older adults are often under-treated for pain.

As with all older adults, those with dementia are at risk for multiple sources and types of pain, including chronic pain from

conditions such as osteoarthritis and acute pain. Untreated pain in cognitively impaired older adults can delay healing, disturb

sleep and activity patterns, reduce function, reduce quality of life, and prolong hospitalization.

HTH, Cheryl

[aimeee, BSN, RN]

We use the PAINAD scale too.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

flacc scale

flacc scale