All of our admissions have a routine genogram done. This is a very handy tool for any new staff member dealing with the patient to be able to glance at and familiarise themselves with the patient’s family and the family dynamics.
For pain assessment, we use the FLACC scale for our smaller, non communicative children, not that we’ve had many, as we’re predominantly an adult Hospice, or the Wong- Baker numerical face chart for our older children and adults. I’ve found the Wong-Baker to be a very effective tool once the children and adults grasps the concept. I have even taken photos that I’ve saved to a mom’s camera roll so she can monitor her child’s pain when I’m not there or when they’re in hospital having treatment. Our greatest frustration is that there doesn’t seem to be a follow through when the children are hospitalised- the nurses don’t seem to use the Wong-Baker charts to asses their pain levels regularly? Has anyone else also found that to be true?
