An Assessment of Severity of Pain in the Emergency Department : A Comparative Study Between Health-care Providers and Self Assessment

Pain is one of the most common presenting complaint in the Emergency Department. Pain assessment is of prime importance because it helps to determine the appropriate type of analgesia to administer and the urgency of the pain relief needed. Do we need to ask patients specifically about their pain scores, or does our observational scoring suffice? The objective of this study was to determine the inter-rater differences in pain scores between patients and emergency health-care providers. Pain scores upon discharge or prior to ward admission were also determined. A prospective study was conducted in which patients independently rated their pain scores at primary triage; health-care providers separately rated the patients' pain scores, based on their observations. Results of the study are presented in this book together with the discussions and conclusion.