Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 1-2e/2017

The role of nurse in the assessment of headache in primary brain tumor patients

Pain occurs in the vast majority of cancer patients. It is a common unpleasant subjective experience that accompanies patients during the trajectory of their disease. The role of the nurse in the assessment of pain is irreplaceable. In foreign literature, pain assessment is referred to one of the nurse‘s key competencies. It consists primarily in the assessment of individual aspects of pain with application of measuring tools. Patients with a primary brain tumor are a specific group, especially due to the presence of one of the major symptoms – headaches. It differs from a typical headache in many aspects, especially with its specific features. The role of nurse lies in identifying these characters, defining and using a suitable measuring tool, which specifies particular aspects of that headache. The assessment as the first phase of the nursing process is based on the findings of knowledge and it is considered to be relevant in patients with primary brain tumor and because of this the article deals with this issue. Its aim is to provide a structured overview of the measuring scales whose knowledge can be the great benefit to nurses.

Keywords: assessment, headache, measuring tools, nursing care, primary brain tumor