spital where the author is based. It is incorporated into all the charts utilised for monitoring the effects of all routes of infused analgesia. Each chart has two boxes provided where the assessor documents the patient's numerical rating score for the severity of pain experienced at rest and on movement. The patient is asked to rate their pain on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable. Lipnickey (1999) indicates that the advantage of the numerical rating scale is that it has been proved to have high consistency, even with different clinicians administering the scale. The disadvantages are that few validation studies have been conducted using it, and those only with chronic pain. McCaffery and Passero (1999) state that 'pain is what the experiencing patient says it is, and exists whenever he says it does.' Observations of the sole use of the numerical verbal rating score assessment tool for pain on a busy surgical ward leads the author to question its effectiveness. Due to frequent numbers o
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