Elaine Cole, Antonia Lynch, and

Elaine Cole, Antonia Lynch, and Helen Cugnoni authored a brief article entitled "Assessment of the Patient with Acute Abdominal Pain," which appeared in the May, 2006 issue of Nursing Standard. Both Elaine Cole and Helen Cugnoni currently (as of the time of the article's publication) hold positions in emergency medicine, while the former is also a lecturer in the area. Antonia Lynch is a consultant nurse, and the experience of the writing team is certainly a major asset to its credibility and reliability.

This paper will present a brief summary and assessment of this practice guideline, assessing it in terms of its approachability, the clarity of its information, and the ultimate applicability of the information as presented. In order to accomplish this, a summary of the information will be provided. Summary The focus of this article, as the title implies, is on the general assessment of patients complaining of abdominal pain.

An overview of the subject is given, with notes regarding the commonality of abdominal pain complaints and the many different ways in which this pain can be described. A large portion of the article is devoted to specific diagnoses, with ailments listed as subject headings and descriptions of the pain experienced and other possibly comorbid symptoms as a means of allowing nursing professionals to differentially diagnose from amongst these ailments.

In this way the article provides both a general and a specific description of abdominal pain assessment methods for a wide variety of common complaints. There are several key assessment areas that are identified in the article, beginning with obtaining a detailed history from the patient including specific attention to any previous complaints of abdominal pain. Analysis of the pain itself is also a large part of assessing patients with abdominal pain complains, and a great deal of space is devoted to a description of pain assessment in this article.

There are also several other areas of assessment recommended for helping nursing staff achieve accurate and efficient diagnoses of abdominal pain complaints. Analysis of medications, recent and lifetime dietary habits, as well as family medical histories are all used as means of differentiating diagnoses. Rationales for these assessment methods are found almost entirely in the ultimate specific diagnoses of abdominal pain complaints, as the patterns of these illnesses can be discovered through these assessment areas.

When it comes to the specific strategies and tools discussed in the article there is very little given in the way of explicit detail other than that which can be circumstantially inferred from the described assessment methods. Communication is obviously key in achieving an accurate understanding of the pain the patient is experiencing, and calm persistence in this regard is a necessary tool or skill for the assessing nurse.

No specialized equipment or tools are generally required for the assessment methods described in this article, though there are times when imaging techniques and other means of assessment are warranted. The article does not focus on any specific population, but rather notes the high degree of frequency with which complaints of abdominal pain are made throughout the human lifespan.

Evaluation The article presents information in a very clear, concise, and straightforward manner that allows the nurse or nursing student to easily access desired information while also obtaining a comprehensive view of the subject matter. This strength, however, comes at the price of an explanation of the detailed mechanisms by which abdominal pain is created by each of the identified illnesses.

The article's primary strength is found in its directness and its effective summary of necessary information, in the brevity through which this is achieved necessarily limits the scope of the article. Though the article would perhaps have been more interesting with more in depth explanations, it was still a highly interesting read and provided an effective and concise review of some knowledge already obtained as well as presenting new knowledge.

The health assessment strategies described in this article would be highly beneficially in any practice not already using similar assessment methods. The efficiency and reliability of the methods the authors describe would be of great benefit to patients and staff alike, saving abundant time, energy, and resources that can then be devoted to treatment and management rather that assessment. These assessment strategies can also be easily made a part of any standard nursing practice.

The clarity and straightforwardness of the explanations given for each of the individual assessment methods and strategies that the authors describe for patients presenting with complaints of abdominal pain is one of the primary reasons that these methods are so beneficial and easily adopted into nursing practice.

Given the rather simplistic nature of the article's recommendations in the area of health and medicine with which the article and its authors are concerned, there is no great need for further publication on the specific issues discussed within the article in the near future. The publication of best practice guidelines for abdominal pain assessment every ten years or so is probably.