When a Random Thought Leads to History and Learning

When ever I have a doctors visit and i am waiting in the examination room; I entertain myself by weighing myself on the scale, I take my own blood pressure. and I've used the stethoscope to hear outside the door. Yup! kid in a candy store playing nurse until the doctor arrives. At my most recent visit i had very low energy.  My eyes were forced to do the entertaining these hands couldn't as i waited for the doctor.  


I began reading the posters on the walls.  I found it interesting that the human bodies dictionary is seemed so limited. When sick we can possess the same symptoms as the flu, but still possess 6 out of 10 symptoms of perhaps a stroke victim. As my eyes moved further I noticed a examination room favorite. The WONG-BAKER pain scale.  I don't think I've ever understood the importance of this scale. I have seen it in every medical facility even those non-pediatric. I wish I was cleaver enough to have invented a happy-face scale used by the entire USA.  I pondered and wondered about it's simplicity.  After leaving the doctor I did some research. The research led me to Wong Baker Faces website.  Here is an example of when " a Random thought leads to History and Learning. " Blow is a what I learned, please enjoy.

The WONG -BAKER story

During her career, Donna Wong served as a consultant, instructor, researcher, and mentor.  Well respected for her work as a writer, she is best known for her textbooks in pediatric nursing, including Nursing Care of Infants and Children, Clinical Manual of Pediatric Nursing, Pediatric Quick Reference, and Essentials of Pediatric Nursing.  

In addition to her work in publishing, Donna Wong is also well known for her extensive research on pediatric pain management.  In 1981, she worked in the burn center at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a nurse consultant.  Working alongside Connie Morain Baker, a child life specialist, Dr. Wong frequently witnessed young children in pain who had difficulty communicating their feelings to the healthcare staff (Wong & Baker, 2002).  The two women realized that many times the children’s complaints and cries were misinterpreted which led to ineffective pain control (Wong & Baker).  They believed that with the proper tool, children would be better able to communicate their pain, which in turn would aid healthcare providers in providing more effective pain assessment and control (Wong & Baker).  In what led to perhaps her most well known contribution, Donna Wong teamed with Connie Baker to develop the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale.  Consisting of six faces ranging from happy to severe pain, the FACES pain scale is a visual analog that is now utilized worldwide to assess pain in children.  In addition to its usefulness as a nursing tool, the FACES pain scale has served to inspire additional research in the area of pain management (“Donna Lee Wong,” 2008).