Pain occur in infants, children and young people, both from medical conditions and from procedures in health care. This pain can have negative consequences on short and long term.
Most guidelines on pain management states that pain assessment is the basis for an adequate pain management. Pain can be assessed with self-report or by observing behavioural or physiological signals. Often these signals are combined into pain scales.
The pain experience and thereby the pain assessment depends on many contextual factors like the patients physical, emotional and psychological status, previous pain experience and support from external factors and persons.
This lecture will discuss principles for pain assessment in different ages and suggest strategies for implementing pain assessment as a clinical routine.