Part one of a series of English-language worksheets for nurses. In this set of reading and listening activities, students learn how to elicit the type and degree of pain experienced by their patients.

Photo of a nurse and a patient.

Source: Sonja Pacho/Corbis/VCG, Corbis

The assessment of pain is a complex activity that involves a consideration of the physical and psychological aspects of the individual. Because pain is a subjective experience, the nurse needs to be able to summarize the information gained against some objective criteria.

Students will learn:

  • vocabulary of the signs and symptoms of pain
  • adjectives to describe pain
  • open and closed questions
  • how to ask about symptoms
  • how to summarize a patient's symptoms