Nurse Practitioners in the World of Pain Management: A Cautionary Tale

• We created a scenario of a nurse practitioner who ran her own family medicine clinical practice, a portion of which was dedicated to pain management.
• The scenario includes being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency for writing unauthorized prescriptions for controlled substances.
• There are preemptive measures nurse practitioners accused of running a pill mill can take to influence their defense strategy.

This article addresses balancing pain management concerns of patients and legal issues faced by nurse practitioners.