Acute pain is every health care worker's responsibility, a key area of clinical management and one of Surgeon General's four focus points for improving quality of life after battlefield injury. The evolving practice of acute pain management requires an informed multidisciplinary and multimodal therapeutic approach to minimise each individual patient's experience of pain. Whilst subject matter experts progress the policies, protocols and capabilities associated with pain management, it remains the duty of every clinician, nurse, health care support worker and all Professions Allied to medicine (PAMs) to keep updated and maintain capability in this key area of clinical management.