An acute pain service: a quality assurance survey of nurses and doctors.

An acute postoperative pain service managed by the anaesthetic department of a metropolitan teaching hospital is described and the results of a quality assurance questionnaire survey of 116 nurses and 60 doctors are reported. Since its inception in 1990, the service has managed the postoperative pain of 1787 patients with patient controlled analgesia and epidural and other regional analgesia. The study found that 97% of nurses and 92% of doctors believed that patients whose pain is well managed have fewer postoperative complications and shorter hospital stays than patients whose pain is not well managed. Both nurses and doctors who had experienced the pain service supported the increased use of patient controlled analgesia pumps and neither group believed that the acute pain service interfered with their management of patients.