The commensuration of pain: How nurses transform subjective experience into objective numbers

Area of Science:

• Sociology of quantification
• Science and Technology Studies (STS)
• Medical sociology

Background:

• Commensuration, the conversion of diverse qualities into a shared metric, is increasingly studied.
• Existing research often focuses on meso- and macro-level commensuration.
• This study examines commensuration at the microscale within healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze microscale commensuration in a Norwegian emergency medical service.
• To investigate how nurses assess and quantify patient pain intensity.
• To explore the principles and implications of nurses' pain assessment methods.

Main Methods:

• Fieldwork conducted in a Norwegian emergency medical service.
• Analysis of nurses' pain intensity scoring practices (0-10 scale).
• Examination of nurses' reliance on 'objective' assessment versus patient self-report.

Main Results:

• Nurses predominantly relied on their 'objective' assessment for pain scoring, despite instructions to combine it with patient self-report.
• Nurses expressed objections to solely using patient self-reported pain.
• The study identified underlying principles, methods, and beliefs guiding nurses' 'objective' pain assessment.

Conclusions:

• Microscale commensuration in pain assessment can disadvantage certain patients.
• Nurses' professional gaze shapes the quantification of pain, impacting patient care.
• The study advances theories of microscale commensuration and the everyday production of numbers.