Pain management: setting up a nurse-led femoral nerve block service

Managing pain following a fractured neck of femur is challenging for a number of reasons. This group of patients are typically older people and frail with multiple co-morbidities and are often on numerous medications. In addition to a hip fracture, they commonly present with acute medical problems. Fractures cause significant pain, which can be difficult to manage safely and effectively with the traditional analgesics. A femoral nerve block has been shown to be a safe and effective preoperative intervention for managing pain in this patient group while they wait for surgery. This article describes how an acute pain team have developed protocols and training to establish a nurse-led service for providing preoperative femoral nerve blocks to patients with fractured neck of femur.