Control and alleviation of pain in the care to children with cancer are objects of nursing concern in the search for interventions that are able to minimize or avoid physical-emotional problems in these children. Medical, psychological and nursing literatures describe pain through physiological, emotional, behavioural and environmental aspects in several models of scales of pain evaluation and control. This study describes some models of evaluation of pain in children and presents the adaptation of the Scale Model of Visual Analogy of Faces by McGrath (1990), as an instrument to be used in nursing care to children with cancer. Although the literature utilized on this study gives emphasis on the evaluation and control of pain in children with cancer, we verify the viability of applying this model by nursing in other situations of pain.
evaluation of pain; child; cancer
