Comparison of Postoperative Pain Scores Reported by Patients to the Surgical Teams and Nursing Staff

The project will be conducted as a prospective study comparing numerical rating scale pain scores reported by the patients to the surgical team and the nursing staff. All orthopedic inpatients will be eligible for the study. Subjects will not be consented for the study prior to data collection in order to prevent bias. At the conclusion of the patient's involvement in the study they will be informed that their data has been collected and will have the opportunity to opt out of the study, at which time the collected data will be destroyed.

Postoperatively the surgical team will ask the patient to provide a pain score during morning rounds as part of routine care. The pain score will be recorded by a member of the surgical team. Within 60 minutes of their rounds and prior to any pain inducing events (such as physical therapy or repositioning), the surgical team will ask the nurse caring for the patient to enter the room by his/her self and ask the patient the same routine questions including the pain score. The nurse will record the pain score. No member of the surgical team will enter the room while the nurse is present in order to prevent bias. This process will be repeated once a day up to three days for each patient after the patient's operation.