Title: Acute pain assessment
Authors: Clear, Elaine
Abstract: The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage” (IASP, 1997). This definition of pain emphasises that it is neither a sensory nor an emotional experience, but a combination of both. It is a subjective experience influenced by physical, psychological and environmental factors that is assessed from a biopsychosocial perspective. The gold standard in assessing pain however is always what the patient says it is.
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