Chronic pain in the workplace.

Chronic pain, especially chronic back pain, is costly to workers, their families, employers, and society. Successful return to productive work life for the worker with chronic pain requires multi-disciplinary efforts, including those of the nurse case manager, occupational health nurse, and nursing specialist in pain management. Sensitivity to the dynamics of multiple stakeholders in the RTW process is essential because of their diverse perspectives. Successful RTW can be facilitated by a combination of approaches, including case management, worker capacity evaluation, ergonomic job analysis, team design of job modifications, appropriate medical treatment, and self management by the worker.