The incidence of reported acute pain is still high which indicates a lack of knowledge in clinical pain assessment and management. This study was carried out to investigate strategies of post-operative pain assessment in terms of patterns of criteria adopted and how these are influenced by prior experience. The research approach, phenomenography, was adopted in data analysis. The subjects of this study consisted of 10 nurses from post-operative care units from a University Hospital in Seoul, Korea. Findings revealed that the nurses mostly relied on "how it usually is" and "how the patient looks" as strategies of post operative pain assessment and "I have learned the typology of patients" as a frame of reference of post operative assessment.

Parents are primary care taker for the children and have an important role for the assessment and managent of children's pain following surgery. The purpose of the present study was to examine the validity and clinical utilization of the Postoperative Pain Measure for Parents (PPMP) developed by Chambers et al. Subjects were 52 children aged 4-12 years admitted for tonsillectomy and other minor surgery and their mothers. Faces Pain Scale, State Anxiety, and Postoperative Pain Measure for Parents were used. The data were collected by two research assistant on the operation day and 1st day after surgery at hospital during the period of July 20 to August 28, 1998. The results are as follows: 1. Eta correlation coefficient between 15 items of PPMP and child rated pain were calculated. Correlation coefficients were more than .2 for both day. 2. Internal consistency for PPMP were .82 and .83. 3. The scores of the PPMP were 10.73 (SD=3.71) and 9.27(SD=4.07) on the operation day and 1st day after surgery and there was no significant difference between two days(p=.056) On the other hand, there was a significant difference on the child rated pain by Faces Pain Scale between operation day and 1st day after surgery(p=.001). 4. The correlation(Spearman Rho) between PPMP and child rated pain were .40(p=.003) and .56(p=.000). The score of the PPMP and the children's state anxiety were highly correlated on the operation day and 1st day after surgery (.60, .52, p=.000). 5. Partial correlation between PPMP and child rated pain except state anxiety were .18(p=.23) and .48(p=.001) on the opration day and 1st day after surgery. 6. Using a cut-off score 10 out of 15, the measure showed excellent sensitivity (>80%) and moderate specificity (46.15%, 60% ). This study provides preliminary evidence for the use of the PPMP as a valid pain assessment tool with children between the ages of 4-12 years following surgery. It is suggested to explore the validity with a different subjects with other surgery and to examine the validity for infant and younger children.