A review of children's pain assessment and management

Pain is a subjective experience, thus, whenever the children stated they are in pain, the pain is existed. In the case of children under 3 years old, however, or those who have difficulty expressing themselves or controlling their behavior, nurses are required to make a judgment about whether they are just moody or are truly experiencing pain; an accurate assessment must be made before pain relief is administered. To relieve pain is one of the obligations of nurses. The purposes of this paper are not only to describe current trends in children's pain assessment and management in the clinical setting, but also to discuss issues related to pain assessment tools. Pain assessment should include a history of pain experience, self-reported measures, behavioral observation measures and physiological measures. Pain management includes pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. A multi-method approach for managing children's pain is needed.