This customizable document, Misconceptions About Pain Assessment, is taken from MCN Healthcare’s Pain Management Policy and Procedure Manual. For more than 20 years, MCN has been the health care industry’s leading provider of policy and procedure templates, forms, competencies and other compliance tools.

MCN provides more than 80 health care specific policy and procedure manuals for Acute Care Hospitals, Ambulatory Care, Behavioral Health, Home Health, Physician Practice, and Long Term Care. MCN’s policy and procedure manuals focus on the latest healthcare "hot topic" issues related to patient safety and prevention of medical healthcare errors.

Here is some sample content from Misconceptions About Pain Assessment:

	MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT PAIN ASSESSMENT Misconceptions/Myths Facts All pain is evidenced by visible physical and behavioral signs. Behavioral and physiological adaptation occurs. Lack of expression does not mean lack of pain. Pain is a completely subjective experience. All pain has an identifiable physiologic cause. Pain is a new science. We should not expect to know the causes of all the pains patients report. Comparable stimuli produce the same intensity of pain in all persons. Comparable stimuli do not result in the same pain in different individuals. Pain threshold is the point at...
Second excerpt:
	...as painful. Our personal values and beliefs can be used to decide whether a patient is telling the truth about pain. The patient is the authority on his or her pain. All patient reports of pain should be treated and accepted as true. Malingerers are very rare. The more experience a person has with pain, the greater the tolerance to that pain. Tolerance to pain is individual. Long-standing pain often decreases a person's tolerance. Reporting pain relief following a placebo means...