<p>„ZDF heute” TV report from 24 October 2012 – “Nurses fighting against pain”</p><p>Two years ago a unique health project was initiated in Münster, Germany. Its aim is to improve the treatment of patients’ suffering from severe pain, e.g. after a surgery. On this occasion a new profession was created, the so called “Pain Nurses”. Currently, the first results of this project were presented. </p><p>Martina Rettig is one of the Pain Nurses working in the Klemens-Hospital in Münster. Her job is to ease the patients’ pain. Therefore, she supports patients individually in consultation with the anesthesiologists. Daniel Krampe has had a car crash; the results are intense contusions on his abdomen and a bruised lung. Nevertheless, the pain is kept into limits due to an adequate dose of analgesics. The treatments’ optimum is an affirmative pain therapy wherein all participants work hand in hand with each other. </p><p>“Even though it is common to document and write everything down with the computer now-a-days, the verbal exchange is very important. The physiotherapist needs to know how far we are in pain therapy and in how far the patient is resilient. We just have to interchange mutually to complement each other in a better way. (Martina Rettig)</p><p>The benefits of a pain nurse at a glance are the following: She should alleviate the acute pain and thereby preventing the pain of becoming chronic. The patient regains more quality of life and the healthcare costs decrease since the patients recover faster.</p><p>These achievements are only feasible due to efficient teamwork: “Origin and outset of our effort is to prevent acute pain from proceeding into chronic pain. This is only possible through a convenient interaction of doctors, nurses and the patients themselves”. Every hospital in Münster now employs Pain Nurses and many further cities are about to improve their pain management according to this model.” (Prof. Jürgen Osterbrink, “Aktionsbündnis Schmerzfreie Stadt Münster”)</p>