MEASURING PAIN VAS (VISUAL ANALOGUE SCALE)

Question 1

What is the VAS?

Answer 1

• A simple self-report pain assessment tool used to measure a person’s pain intensity at a specific moment, from a continum to (no pain) to (worst imaginable pain).

Question 2

How is does the VAS work?

Answer 2

1. The patient is shown a straight line (usually 10 cm long).
2. The straight line runs from a continum of no pain (left) to worst pain imaginable (right).
3. Patient is asked to mark a point on the line, which reflect how much pain they are currently experincing.
4. Clinician measures the distance from the left of the scale to the patients mark, which gives a numeric pain score (6.5 cm= 6.5/10 pain level)

1) Mark pain 2) Coverted to numerical value 3) Meauring

Question 3

Name 1 strength and 1 weakness of using the VAS to measure pain?

Answer 3

• Strength (QUICK & EASY ASSESSMENT): Can be adminsitered in a short amount of time as patients simply mark pain level on a straight line. (Efficent to use in research/ clinical settings for brief overview)
• Weakness (REDUCTIVE/ UNIDIMENTIONAL): Reductive as it only measures pain intensity, without capturing other dimentions like quality or emotional impact.