Acute pain assessment and management in trauma victims is often overlooked in emergency department (ED). Visual analogue scale is the preferred scale for assessment and management of pain however, its role in a busy ED is limited. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of verbal and visual analogue scale among emergency care providers.

Emergency caregivers were instructed to use both pain scales wherever feasible for assessment, management, and monitoring of pain in 100 non-consecutive alert patients. A separate, pre-tested survey questionnaire addressing the feasibility of each pain scales was surveyed among emergency care providers (emergency physicians, nursing staff). A Likert scale (1 to 5) was assessed for cooperativeness, availability of time for assessment, the format, the peak period feasibility, the monitoring ease and the amount of work load. Binary scale (yes and no) was used to measure the overall utility in assessment and management of pain.

Out of 100 patients enrolled, the verbal analogue score was used in all patients and visual analogue score was used in 30 patients. The average Likert scale score for verbal analogue score questionnaire was 1.7 and the average Likert scale score for visual analogue score questionnaire was 3.9. On the overall utility both scales were found to be useful in all patients.

Both the scales were found to be useful in overall assessment and management of pain. However, there was a favorable trend towards using verbal analogue scale among emergency care providers.