sessment of any one patient's pain. In order to ensure that pain of a nonverbal child is being assessed every time by every nurse in a consistent manner, a pain assessment scale is necessary.
             The University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital (UWCH) Pain Scale for Preverbal and Nonverbal Children is a scale used to assess pain based on five categories: "facial, vocal/cry, behaviorial/consolability, body movements/posture, and sleep" (Soetenga, Frank, & Pellino, 1999, p. 3). This scale is in a column format due to previous reports that this form is easier to use in the clinical setting than scales that require the user to add up scores in each category to get an end result (p. 3). The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of pediatric nurses at a regional medical center as they implement The University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital Pain Scale for Preverbal and Nonverbal Children on children between the ages of six and twelve months in the acute clinical setting.
             Infant pain has for the most part been inadequately assessed and poorly managed. This is largely due to myths that children cannot feel pain or if they do feel pain, are unable to remember the occurrence(McCaffery & Pasero, 1999, pp. 629-630; Soud & Rogers, 1998, p. 689; Brown, 1997, p. 349). Recent studies have moved more toward the fetus having the "anatomic and neurochemical abilities to experience discomfort" as early as the second trimester (Soud & Rogers, 1998, p. 689.) The central nervous system is as mature as an adult's by 36 weeks gestation (Brown, 1997,p. 349), and at birth, an infant has comparable, if not more, numbers of nociceptive nerve endings on their skin surface as an adult (McCaffery & Pasero, 1999, p. 629). This suggests that infants are as capable as adults of experiences painful impulses. Studies have also shown that infants can in fact remember painful stimuli. Continual behavioral changes in infants after painful...