"It's really sore," my (Josh's) five-year-old daughter said, cradling her broken arm in the emergency department. "But on a scale of 0 to 10, how do you rate your pain?" asked the nurse. My daughter's ...

Do pain scales truly improve acute pain management in the ED? These results lead to a serious question regarding the true meaning of pain scores: "which scores on a single-item pain scale signify ...