Pain is the 5th vital sign and because it is subjective may often be ignored by staff. Pain may be acute, chronic or acute on chronic. It may arise from the disease processes, peri-operative wounds to name a few.

Nurses on 4BR the in-patient unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) work as a multidisciplinary team together with medical staff, Acute Pain Services and the palliative care team (if required.) as well as inclusion of client and family in the management of pain.

Pain relief may be managed via several routes being oral, subcutaneous, IV, IM, topical, sublingual and Intrathecal. It is important that pain is identified and relieved.

On 4BR nurses are trained in managing and delivering pain relief using Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) machines – both as bolus deliveries and with a background infusion if necessary. Applying and monitoring topical patches, Graseby syringe drivers and intrathecal devices such as epidural.

The most important factor in good pain control is listening to the client and ensuring that they feel that their pain is being managed.