Pain as the fifth vital sign: exposing the vital need for pain education

Abstract

The push to evaluate pain in patients as exemplified by the fifth vital sign has exposed serious deficits in practitioner education and training in pain assessment and management because patient report of pain level has become commonplace in clinical practice. The rapid increase in prescription opioid medications suggests that practitioners are trying to address their patients' pain by prescribing opioids. However, the increase in prescription opioids has also been associated with an increase in prescription opioid-related unintended deaths. In clinical practice, the fifth vital sign has proven to be more complex to assess, evaluate, and manage than originally anticipated. Expanding pain education and training is critical to remedying some of the issues the routine report of pain by patients has uncovered.