Pain Screening
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ARE YOU LISTENING?
American novelist Naomi Wolf once wrote: "Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria." To which we might add, "…or old age and dementia." Thus amended, this remark may go a long way toward explaining why official estimates of pain prevalence among nursing home residents (7-9%) are so much lower than actual pain prevalence (45-83%) (references 1-4).
The MDS Users Manual for December 2002 has this to say about pain assessment (5): "Ask the resident if he or she has experienced any pain…If the resident has pain, take his or her word for it." As we will see, it's that simple.
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