Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026
Quantifying Pain Location and Intensity with Multimodal Pain Body Diagrams
Published on: July 7, 2023
Introduction of a pain scale for palliative care patients with cognitive impairment
Trudie van Iersel1, Denise Timmerman, Arsene Mullie
1Palliative Care Network, Northwest Flanders, Diksmuidse Heirweg 647, B 8200 Bruges, Belgium. tvaniersel@pznwvl.be
Aim:
To describe the development and introduction of a pain scale for patients with cognitive impairment who are admitted to homes for older people and nursing homes in the region of northwest Flanders in Belgium.
Design:
A questionnaire comparing the Abbey and Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scales was distributed in 17 homes; 185 care providers participated, evaluating 157 patients.
Findings:
Approximately half of the care providers evaluated both scales as being good measures of pain and easy to use. Of the different items scored in both scales, care providers agreed upon three indicators as being most valuable to use for measuring pain: facial expression; vocalization; and body language.
Conclusion:
The findings were not conclusive for the introduction of either Abbey or PAINAD. Based on the results, a simplified pain observation scale consisting of three items was developed. It has been introduced in the homes of the region and is being tested currently.
Related Concept Videos
01:25Continuing Care
01:15Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...