The subject of this thesis came from the nurses who treat patients with various issues with pain in Kanta-Häme Central Hospital. They suggested a thesis about non-medical pain relief. The subject had to be defined because non-medical pain relief is a very wide area of pain managing. The subject was de-fined to include only those pain relief methods that are easy to carry out without any extra education. The ward the thesis was focused on was an intensive care unit in Kanta-Häme Central Hospital. The thesis includes a manual about non-medical pain relief. The manual includes various methods how to relieve the pain the patient is suffering without medicine. It also included tips about how these methods could be done in action on the ward and how the nursing personnel can use those methods within normal day work.

The theory of this thesis was mainly found in books, but also from some arti-cles, master’s theses and some studies. The scientific knowledge about non-medical pain relief was fairly easy to find. The knowledge and ideas of the author were used with the suggestions-part of the manual. The suggestions include also links and names of books so the personnel can find more information about non-medical pain relief methods. The study started at finding all the studies and books about pain and non-medical pain relief. The information was condensed into the manual.

The manual was introduced at a meeting with the ward personnel in the spring of 2013. In the summer of 2013, the manuals were collected from the ward and there were some written comments on them. The main comment was that all of the pain management methods in the booklet were used on the ward. The manual is a good tool for helping the nursing personnel to think about non-medical pain relief and how to do it on the ward.