The App I Dreamed Of in Graduate School Is Finally Here

A pain assessment tool born from nearly a decade at the bedside and a vision that refused to fade.

SACRED HEART NURSING SERVICES  ·  2026

Some ideas plant themselves so deeply that no amount of time, confusion, or circumstance can uproot them. For me, that idea was a simple, color-coded tool that would put the power of pain management directly into the hands of the people who need it most: hospice patients and their caregivers.

It started in graduate school. I was overwhelmed, not by a lack of passion, but by an abundance of it. I had been working in hospice nursing for nearly a decade at that point, and I knew the landscape intimately: the long nights, the quiet rooms, the families searching for answers on how to keep their loved one comfortable. When it came time to identify a project focus, pain chose me before I chose it.

My original vision was a color-coded reference document that any caregiver regardless of clinical training could use to assess pain, tally a score, and determine the appropriate medication and dose. Oxycodone, Norco, morphine, and Dilaudid, medications that can mean the difference between suffering and peace, between a restless hour and a restful one. The document I envisioned would demystify the process. It would be clear. It would be compassionate. And it would be in their hands at admission and throughout the entire hospice journey.

I wanted to turn that document into an app. But at the time, building an app meant commissioning developers for thousands of dollars a barrier I couldn't clear as a graduate student and independent nurse. So the idea waited. Patiently. The way good ideas do.

THE VISION, REALIZED

Years later, I am proud to share that the wait is over. I have built Comfort Score an interactive pain assessment and medication guidance tool designed specifically for hospice patients, family caregivers, and the nurses who serve them.

The app is straightforward by design. Users simply click on the symptoms their loved one is experiencing. The app tallies the score automatically. Then, based on the medication and dosage information entered, Comfort Score displays the appropriate amount to administer. No guesswork. No flip-flopping between sheets of paper in the middle of the night. Just clear, compassionate guidance, exactly when it is needed.

WHAT COMFORT SCORE OFFERS

Interactive symptom selection, just tap what you observe

Automatic score tallying with no calculation required

Medication guidance based on the drugs and doses you enter

Supports common hospice opioids including morphine, oxycodone, Dilaudid, and Norco

Designed for caregivers with no clinical background required

Accessible directly from any phone, tablet, or computer.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Unmanaged pain at the end of life is one of the most preventable forms of suffering that exists. The tools are there. The medications are prescribed. And yet, time and again, caregivers freeze uncertain about whether what they are seeing constitutes "real" pain, unsure whether administering a medication now is the right call, afraid of doing harm when their deepest intention is to do good.

"Caregivers should never have to choose between their fear of giving too much and the reality of their loved one's pain."

Comfort Score removes that paralysis. It provides a structured framework that translates what a caregiver sees restlessness, facial tension, guarding, vocalizations into a clinical language they can act on with confidence. It does not replace the hospice nurse. It extends her.

FROM BEDSIDE TO SCREEN

I built this app with close to twenty years of nursing behind me. I have sat with patients in their final hours. I have coached tearful family members through the terrifying responsibility of a PRN dose. I have arrived at a home the next morning to learn that no one gave anything because no one was sure and the night was hard.

That is the wound this app was made to heal. Not a clinical wound, but a human one. The wound of uncertainty in the most tender moments of a family's life.

Comfort Score is now available to the public, free to use, accessible on any device, and offered with the same heart that has guided my nursing practice since the beginning. If you are a hospice caregiver, a patient, a family member, or a fellow clinician looking for a resource to share with families on your caseload, I invite you to try it.