Use of pain assessment tools
It is important to obtain a clear picture of the patient’s
symptoms in relation to the quality, location and radiation,
the time and tempo of onset, and aggravating or palliating
activities. In the author’s clinical practice, the ‘OLD
CART’ (Seidl et al, 2003) assessment model (Table 3) and
the pain scale are utilised. The pain scale quantifies the
severity of pain using a scale of 0–10 with 0 being no pain
and 10 being the worst pain the patient has experienced.
For those with communication barriers, the pain scale is
used in a paper format.