Attitude: impact on pain assessment.

Nurses have many attitudes and beliefs about the means with which to navigate the road to pain relief for their patients. The use of an efficient and effective method to "light the path" has been extremely subjective in the past. There are reliable instruments than can be used effectively to measure and treat pain if they are used in the context of cultural appropriateness, a consistent healthcare team effort, and as part of a multidimensional approach. The utilization of the guidelines in this paper can provide direction for nurses to improve best practices and documentation in pain management, so that we may never have to say again "pain assessment instruments don't work.