Delivering quality pain management: the challenge for nurses.

The delivery of high-quality pain management in the perioperative environment can be challenging and difficult to quantify. Commonly used tools in delivering care, such as pain intensity ratings, individual pain experience reporting, assessments of individual patients' expectations, and patient satisfaction scores, have limitations and are not always useful when addressing quality improvement measures. Despite clinical advances in pain management, patients continue to experience inadequate pain control and inconsistent pain management practices. In this article, we discuss the challenges in providing consistent quality pain management, the need for a coordinated plan of care with a goal of meeting desired pain outcomes, and the essential role that perianesthesia and perioperative nurses play throughout the transitions in perioperative care to promote optimal pain management interventions based on the patient's individual needs.