Professional education for complexity-informed pain care

When Chronic Pain Recovery Stalls,
Look Beyond the Pain Score.

The Pain Complexity Screening Tool™ (PCST) is a pilot-stage, nurse-developed care-planning framework that helps organize patient-reported recovery barriers and supports more individualized conversations about recovery.

By Marisela Cigliuti, BSN, RN, CCDS — registered nurse & clinical documentation specialist.

Schedule a Free Provider Consultation →

For clinicians and care teams

Does this sound familiar?

You have patients who —

Continue to struggle despite appropriate treatment
Have seen multiple providers without lasting improvement
Feel overwhelmed, discouraged, or unsure what to try next
Have recovery barriers that don’t fit neatly into a diagnosis or pain score

The challenge may not be identifying the pain. It may be understanding what’s making recovery harder.

The real question

Pain intensity asks one question. Recovery asks another.

Chronic pain assessment often answers:

Where does it hurt?
How intense is the pain?
What is the diagnosis?

A useful starting point — but it may not explain what’s shaping recovery or what the plan should prioritize.

But when recovery stalls, the more useful questions are often about:

Flare patterns
Function
Confidence
Healthcare experiences
Daily life
Recovery readiness

Recovery isn’t shaped by pain alone.

About the framework

The Pain Complexity Screening Tool™

The PCST is a pilot-stage framework designed to help organize the factors that may be making recovery more difficult into meaningful domains — supporting clearer clinical conversations and more individualized care planning.

It is intended to support, not replace, clinical judgment.

The process

A Structured Approach to Pain Recovery Conversations

Free Provider Consultation

We’ll talk about your practice, your patients, and whether the pilot is a good fit.

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Refer a Patient

Eligible patients receive a free, nurse-led Pain Profile during the pilot — at no cost to you or your patient.

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Pain Profile

Marisela personally conducts the Pain Profile conversation and organizes the findings using the PCST framework. A structured summary is shared with you to support your own care planning.

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Care Planning

The findings support more individualized conversations about next steps with your patient.

Schedule a Free Provider Consultation →

The goal

Why This Matters

Understanding pain is important. Understanding why recovery has stalled may be even more important.

The goal isn’t to create another score. The goal is to support better conversations, clearer care planning, and more individualized recovery strategies.

Prefer live, case-based learning? Join Care Planning Thursdays.

Upcoming education

Care Planning Thursdays

The first series begins September 2026. Each session includes a focused teaching topic, structured complexity mapping, a de-identified case reflection, care-planning discussion, and Q&A.

Initial 4-session series: September · October · November · December — one session per month.

The inaugural series will focus on:

Pain intensity vs pain complexity Recovery readiness Complex case review Flare instability & function Treatment fatigue Scope, referral & collaborative care Measuring progress beyond pain reduction

Seats are limited for case discussion. Registration details announced to the interest list first.

Not ready to register? Join the interest list.

Get session dates, topics, and early registration access — announced to the list first.

I have had the pleasure of working with Marisela on projects to disseminate information and awareness about chronic pain/neuroplastic pain in both the Hispanic community & with the perinatal population (pregnancy & postpartum). Marisela is highly skilled and knowledgeable in these areas, and is a great asset to the community!

Eva Schonfeld Reichel, LCSW

Psychotherapist, CBT of Central and South Florida · Founding Board Member & Student Membership Chair, CBT Alliance of Florida

About the educator

Marisela Cigliuti, BSN, RN, CCDS

She is a registered nurse, pain recovery educator, and founder of Pain Care At Home™, with a background in neurology, case management, clinical documentation, and complex-care review.

Her pain education work is also informed by training in Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy, mindfulness, trauma-informed care, and her own lived experience with persistent pain.

The education is informed by the Pain Complexity Screening Tool™ framework — a structured approach for identifying recovery barriers that may affect function, engagement, treatment matching, and care planning. It is a care-planning framework, not a diagnostic instrument, and it never replaces clinical judgment.

For healthcare organizations

When complexity is identified, care can finally match it.

Clearer recovery picture

Barriers that stall progress get named instead of guessed at.

Better-matched care plans

Support, referrals, and pacing reflect what's actually in the way — not a generic protocol.

Fewer stalled cases

Teams catch what's missing before another cycle of "continue current plan" goes by.

Documentation that reflects the work

Records show the clinical reasoning behind the plan, supporting cleaner claims and audit readiness.

Professional inquiries

Training questions, case-review interest, speaking, collaboration, or referrals

Reach out through the professional inquiry form, or call or text 727-213-8864.

This form is not for emergencies or patient-specific clinical advice. Do not submit protected health information, medical records, or identifiable patient details.

When Chronic Pain Recovery Stalls,Look Beyond the Pain Score.