To describe surgical nurses’ strategies for enhancing their pain management proficiency.A qualitative design was used to conduct the study. The participants were forty surgical nurseswho had at least six years of nursing experience in caring for patients with pain. They responded toopen-ended questions based on a review of the policy documents concerning the main elements ofthe pain management programme to be implemented by surgical nurses. Three key themes emergedfrom the surgical nurses’ suggested strategies: partnering, disrupting, and becoming familiar withpain management competency concerns. Surgical nurses’ strategies in acute and chronic painmanagement nursing units included solving patients’ problems and promoting and enhancing painstrategies to address health challenges in organisations. The themes presented in the results includeenhancing pain management in nursing competencies. State-of-the-art healthcare technologies arebeing applied to pain management. Surgical nurses’ strategies should improve the quality of nursingcare, especially post-surgery recovery time. It is recommended to engage patients, their families, andmultidisciplinary care teams in other healthcare fields.