Who can obtain a pain scale

[Avan23]

I work in an ER and was recently informed that PCAs can not record patients pain scales because this is part of the nursing assessment. Is this true? They aren't actually assessing the patient they are recording what they are being told.

[Simplistic]

At my hospital, all the pca's gather the pain scale information. There is no assessment involved in this. You are literally asking the client to rate their pain.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Does your ER have an actual policy stating that is only in the scope of the nurses?

[Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN]

They do where I work.

They are charting the response to the question "What is your pain on a scale of 0-10".

It is easier than doing other vital signs.

Who told you this, as it may be a department or facility policy.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

This is no different than a PCA, MA, or CNA charting vital signs. The nurse still has to do the assessment and if obtaining vital signs is already completed, that's one task the nurse doesn't have to do. This doesn't mean an individual hospital or patient care unit of said hospital can't restrict certain tasks, such as obtaining pain as part of vital signs, to only certain personnel.

[verene, MSN]

Sounds like this may be a facility specific policy. At my facility unit techs were all trained as either CNAs (or EMTs in ED) and could take vital signs and assess pain. PCAs on the other had no formal training beyond facility orientation and were literally only allowed to observe the patient for 1:1 or 1:2 observation, they couldn't even take vital signs, so a pain assessment would be out of their scope.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

In my pediatric ER experience, only RN and MDs have been able to perform pain assessments. The logic according to my most recent facility's policy is that there are a multitude of pain scales that we utilize depending on various factors such as age and cognitive level, which is where the assessment part of it comes into play.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

I work in an ER and was recently informed that PCAs can not record patients pain scales because this is part of the nursing assessment. Is this true? They aren't actually assessing the patient they are recording what they are being told.

Given that the 1-10 pain scale is essentially worthless, who cares who writes it down?

[offlabel]

Amen... most of what gets written down is worthless. People write way too much stuff. And the 1-10 pain scale, well...pain is the 5th vital sign.

[Cat365]

In my pediatric ER experience, only RN and MDs have been able to perform pain assessments. The logic according to my most recent facility's policy is that there are a multitude of pain scales that we utilize depending on various factors such as age and cognitive level, which is where the assessment part of it comes into play.

when I was a tech we didn't do pain scales. However there was a box where we could check RN informed if the patient requested pain medication or stated they were in pain. I always wondered why we didn't just do the 0-10 scale. This is the best explanation I've ever seen and it never occurred to me. However I do think it is a facility specific rule because I believe that the techs performed it at other hospitals I did clinicals at.