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 multidisciplinary efforts, including those of the nurse case manager, occupational health nurse, and nursing specialist in pain management. Successful return to work 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.