Reply To: Pain Scoring – are we all doing this regularly?

Andy that’s a very good point about the painful vs pain scoring – I think sometimes the emphasis on the fact that it does actually measure a semi-quantifiable clinical parameter in the same way as temp/HR/RR/BP etc is missed and it can be seen as a box-ticking exercise. It’s a particular shame because it can be a really valuable way to teach students of vet and nursing, VCAs and recently-qualified folk the subtleties of spotting these pain parameters (and those of us who’ve been out far longer and got lazy or qualified before it was common practice!!).
Rather like the surgical checklists (I refer also here to the interesting article in the most recent (?) JSAP issue) – the actual spirit and importance of them can be lost if they are perceived as monotonous instead of essential.