Pain Awareness Month

Pain is a universal symptom that impacts on every aspect of our lives. This can be from the minor stubbing of our toes when walking to the bathroom in the dark, to acute pain following an injury or surgery and then chronic pain that can have a multitude of causes. Regardless of the type of pain that we are experiencing its impact can be significant and wide reaching. For this reason, it is vital that all healthcare professionals have the knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to recognise that someone is in pain, be able to assess the impact it is having on them as an individual and then support them in developing a management plan.

September is international Pain Awareness Month, this is established and led by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The goal of this awareness month is to raise awareness of all aspects of pain care to ensure that all those impacted by pain can have access to good quality care. As a result of this, there are free resources available that cover a wide range of topics related to pain assessment and management. For more information on how you can get involved or access these resources visit the website.

A little closer to home, the RCN Pain and Palliative Care Forum has a range of resources that you can access to support your development in caring for those impacted by pain. They include:

UK Career Framework for Pain Nurses: This is an online interactive tool that outlines the knowledge and skills required for all levels of nursing practice regarding pain assessment and management.

Blog posts: We have a range of blog post regarding a range of topics across pain and palliative care that can be useful short updates regarding specific topics.

Pain Subject Guide: This guide has been developed by the RCN Library services that links you to a range of documents and journals to expand your knowledge on pain related topics.

Pain Assessment and Learning Disability: This is a new project that we are currently developing however, you can access a great presentation from congress 2021 that explores this topic in more detail and acts as a refresher. See Pain Assessment and Learning Resource.

If there are any additional resources that you feel would be helpful regarding pain assessment or management then please do contact the forum and we can support, you in this area of practice moving forward.