Why you should read this article:

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To refresh your knowledge of the principles of pain assessment and management

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To identify useful pain assessment and management tools and resources

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To enhance your awareness of the adverse effects and complications of opioids

Pain is a distressing, subjective and complex phenomenon that all nurses will encounter in their clinical practice. Effective pain management requires nurses to undertake a structured assessment to identify the probable causes of pain and guide management. Interventions used to reduce pain can be varied and multimodal. This article provides an overview of pain including its definition, classifications, assessment and management. It emphasises the importance of a person-centred approach to care which reflects Margo McCaffery’s seminal quote that pain is ‘whatever the experiencing person says it is’.