COMPARISON OF 3 PREVERBAL SCALES FOR POSTOPERATIVE PAIN ASSESSMENT INA DIVERSE PEDIATRIC SAMPLE

The purposes of this study were to compare the reliability and validit y of three pain measurement scales for assessing pain in preverbal and nonverbal children and to determine which of the scales was most appr opriate in a clinical setting to evaluate pain for infants and young c hildren regardless of developmental stage or cognitive or physical dis ability. Pain scales tested were revised versions of the Riley Infant Pain Scale (RIPS), the Nursing Assessment of Pain Intensity (NAPI) and the Postoperative Pain Score (POPS). Purposive sampling of 391 postop erative infants and children was used for evaluation of pain in a midw estern children's hospital. Four assessments with each scab were done 1 hr apart by trained observers blinded to pain medications. Data anal yses supported high inter-rater reliability: satisfactory discriminati on between pain and no-pain observations, and suggested acceptability for all three scales with lower caregiver burden for RIPS and NAPI. (C ) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 1996.