Reflect back on your own practice experience and the pain assessment tools you have used and consider:

• Was the tool used the most appropriate?
• Could you have used a different tool to obtain a more patient-centred assessment?

There are many commonly used assessment tools in the practice areas and they are generally used because that is what the staff are used to; hopefully this is also supported by robust evidence. However, the commonly used tools are not always the most appropriate ones and you should consider reviewing the tool being used for your patient to identify its appropriateness, i.e. is it assessing what you need in the right way for the patient? A useful source of information is the pain specialist nurse with whom you can discuss relevant assessment tools for specific patients.