Final answer:
It is crucial to have the patient describe their pain, report it to the nurse, and accurately document it. Pain is subjective and requires the patient's description to assess severity and treatment needs, which can be aided by tools like the Wong-Baker Faces pain-rating scale.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, when a person complains of pain, it is important to have the patient describe the pain, then report it to the nurse, and record it in your notes. Proper documentation of symptoms, such as pain, is a crucial part of patient care and plays a significant role in formulating a diagnosis and subsequent treatment plan. Observing and noting the characteristics of pain can assist in determining its cause, which can be vital for effective management and therapy.
Pain is a subjective symptom that cannot be objectively measured without patient input. Therefore, clinicians may use tools like the Wong-Baker Faces pain-rating scale to obtain a quantified measure of pain. These scales can help translate a patient's subjective experience into a semi-objective assessment that can be tracked over time. Alternative methods, such as measuring skin conductance fluctuations, demonstrate attempts at more objective measurements; these fluctuations can reflect the physiological response to pain associated with skin sympathetic nerve activity. Nonetheless, patient self-report remains a fundamental component of evaluating pain due to the personal and subjective nature of the experience.