Action staken when a pain score of 5 or greater was recorded Children have indicated that their threshold for treatment in relation to postoperative pain is 4.72 on a scale of 0–10 (Birnie et al., 2011). The field notes contained information about the occasions when a child’s pain score was recorded as being 5 or greater and the actions taken at this point. Of the 27 times a pain score was reported to be 5 or greater, no action was taken on eight occasions (30%). On nine occasions (33%) the child was given the pain medications due to be administered at that time. On 10 occasions (37%) additional pain medications were given (although eight of those episodes related to one case). This means that 70% of the time, action was taken when the pain score was 5 or greater. The action taken did not always appear to be influenced by a child’s pain score but often by what analgesics were due to be given at that time. As noted previously, on six occasions the nurse was observed asking a child about his or her pain, but this was not subse- quently recorded in the charts. The data presented here relate only to documented pain scores, and as such may not provide a complete picture of action taken in this context.