Pilot Evaluation of a Functional Pain Assessment Scale.

Purpose/aims: Common pain assessment tools measure intensity, ignoring other dimensions of pain like function. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of a newly developed functional pain assessment scale (FPAS) for use in clinical practice.

Design/methods: In this descriptive correlational study, an FPAS was developed and then evaluated against 2 validated pain tools in 68 hospitalized adult patients experiencing acute and/or chronic pain.

The covered wagon journey: student chronicles in advanced holistic nursing.

This article recounts the experiences of a first cohort of graduate students in a newly implemented advanced holistic nursing (AHN) track, one of only a handful in the nation, and the first in Florida. The increasing popularity of complementary and alternative healing processes represents the insufficiency of a health system of fragmented care and a desire for holistic healing that is beyond mainstream allopathic care. Graduate holistic nurse education equips nurses to explore the commitment needed to advance the evolution of health care.