title: Pain assessment: how far have we come in listening to our patients?
abstract: Nurses have a key part to play in assessing patient's pain. Listening to the patient is essential and where communication is a problem, for language or other reasons, so is observing patients and talking to those who know them. Various pain assessment tools can be useful but nurses should remain open-minded and, above all, believe what their patients tell them.
authors.affiliation: University of Sheffield, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Sheffield.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schofield
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dunham
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000451:nursing*