Pain management: an adolescent scoliosis patient.

Recovery units can be busy environments not often conducive to reflective practice. Reflection is, however, an important aspect of high quality care. Using Gibbs model of reflection (see Figure 1), applied to the experience of caring for a 15 year old patient who had undergone surgery to correct a scoliosis deformity, this article illustrates how a deeper understanding of holistic pain management and assessment can be achieved and high standards of care maintained through careful reflective practice.