Adult Pain Management 

Introduction
Research undertaken by Dodd (1986) showed that a significant number of post-operative patients had unacceptably high levels of pain indicating under treatment, and that patients and nurses held conflicting expectations of who should initiate the request from pain relief medication.  Following that study pain management became the primary focus for nursing education in the Surgical Unit at Auckland Hospital.  The Surgical Nurse Educator and I planned a programme to include all aspects of pain management; the neurophysiology of pain, pain assessment skills, pharmacokinetics and the delivery drugs.