Comparison of two neonatal pain assessment tools (Children and Infant’s Postoperative Pain Scale and the Neonatal Facial Coding System—Revised) and their relations to clinicians’ intuitive pain estimates

Abstract

Many neonatal observational pain assessment tools are available. Their application in clinical settings, however, has been limited. A further difficulty for decision makers may be to choose among the variety of available tools the appropriate one(s) for their patients. Aims of the present study were (1) to compare two commonly cited neonatal pain assessment tools, the Neonatal Facial Coding System—Revised (NFCS‐R) and the Children and Infant’s Postoperative Pain Scale (CHIPPS), with regard to their psychometric qualities and (2) to explore intuitive clinicians’ ratings by relating them to the tools’ items.