ABSTRACTAimThe study aim was to describe the prevalence of pain, its assessment, and its associated characteristics in a university hospital in the French‐speaking part of Switzerland.BackgroundDespite many advances in its management, pain is still a common and persistent symptom in hospitals. Nurses have a central role in its management. Pain assessment is essential for optimal management; it is nonetheless made insufficiently and randomly.DesignThe design was a monocentric correlational descriptive study.MethodsThis study was based on the secondary analysis of routine data from 22,987 computerised health records of the medical and surgical wards between 1 November 2017 and 31 March 2019.ResultsThe results showed that the prevalence of pain was high in medical and surgical wards. Almost one‐fifth of the participants suffered from severe pain at least once during their hospital stay. There was no association between the presence of pain and hospital ward, but the likelihood of having severe pain increased if the participant was hospitalised in a medical ward. Close personalised pain monitoring should be promoted to prevent the onset of severe pain.No Patient or Public Contribution.