According to Tanabe and Buschmann (1999), pain is one of the “most common complaints in the emergency department.” The reasons why patients go to the emergency room are very atypical, the goal, whatever the complaint, is to be helped as quickly as possible and reduce the discomfort as soon as possible. Recent publications have shown that 70% of patients with acute painful conditions do not receive any pain medication in the emergency room (Tanabe & Buschmann, 1999). These are disappointing and important results in terms of patient suffering and quality of life. It is obvious that pain management is suboptimal, indicating that significant room for improvement remains. In an article published in Annuals of Emergency Medicine, researchers Rupp and Delaney (2004) found that a review of emergency room pain management practices “demonstrates inconsistency and inadequacy of pain treatment that extends across all demographic groups.” . Inconsistency and inadequacy arise from the abundance of potential barriers which include; inadequate pain education in assessment and management, lack of communication between providers, attitudes towards pain and pain medications, subjectivity of pain and lack of awareness in pain management. In the book Pain: Causes and Management, the author states that “pain is a universal experience that can span a huge spectrum of intensity, from mild discomfort to excruciating agony.” Pain can represent a variation of feelings and emotions and is considered a physical sensation associated with some type of tissue damage or disease. It is self-determining and distinctive to each individual. It is important for emergency room workers to remember that...... half of the document ...... on Rarity in patients treated with narcotics. New England Journal of Medicine, 302,123. Rupp, T., Delaney, K. (2003). Inadequate analgesia in emergency medicine. Emergency Medicine Annuals, 43, 494-503. Tanabe, P., Buschmann, M. (1999). A prospective study of pain management practice in the ED and patient perspective. Journal of Emergency Nurses, 18, 171-177. Walker, J., Akinsanya, J., Davis, B., Marcer, D. (1990). Nursing management of patients with pain in the community: study and recommendations. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 15, 1154-1161. Wang, X., Cleeland, C., Mendoza, T., Engstrom, M., Liu, S., Xu, G., Hao, X., Wang, Y. , Ren, The effects of pain severity on health-related quality of life. American Cancer Society, 86, 1848-1855.Woolf, C. (1991). Generation of acute pain: central mechanisms. British Medical Bulletin, 47,523-533.