Nursing staff rarely make a formal assessment of patients’ pain, particularly of acute post-operative pain. Lack of formal assessment probably leads to failure to adequately chart pain. Because it is not charted, it does not act as a prompt to ensure consistent pain care.

We know that in HK nurses underestimate the amount of acute post-op. pain in female patients to a greater extend than they do in male patients, who also have their pain under-estimated by nurses.