The practice of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has been around for about four decades now. During this time there have been improvements in technology and understanding of how to use this form of patient pain control; however, there continue to be concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of PCA. As the review progresses, it will briefly explain what PCA is and how it is used, and then delve into the benefits and safety issues surrounding the use of PCA as it pertains to the patient and nurse. Some of the benefits of PCA include improved pain management, better utilization of nursing resources, increased patient satisfaction, and reduced lung problems (Hicks, Sikirica, Nelson, Schein & Cousins, 2008). Some of the safety concerns related to the use of PCA include infusion pump programming errors, basal infusion dosing, and proxy errors when using PCA via proxy (Ladak, Chan, Easty, & Chagpar, 2007). Therefore, the purpose of this report is to examine the benefits and risks of patient-controlled analgesia and its relationship to nursing practice. Patient-controlled analgesia via an infusion pump allows patients experiencing moderate to severe pain following surgery, trauma, cancer, and other chronic conditions, to administer their own pain medications. The most common type of drugs used in infusion pumps today are opioid analgesics, due to their effectiveness and availability (Chumbley & Mountford, 2010). PCA infusion pumps provide analgesia via intravenous or epidural routes allowing for almost instant pain relief versus the delay of the nurse having to prepare and administer each dose as needed. These pumps allow you to administer analgesia with a basal (background) infusion rate, a bolus (pati...... center of sheet ......6-283. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-172X .2007.00638 .xLadak, S.J., Chan, V.W., Easty, T., & Chagpar, A. (2007) Right drug, right dose, right patient, right time, and right route: how we select the right patient-controlled analgesia (). pca) device?. Pain Management Nursing, 8(4), 140-145 doi: 10.1016/j.pmn.2007.08.001Lindley, P., Pestano, C.R., & Gargiulo, K. (2009). management using two methods of patient-controlled analgesia: nursing perspective. , Eksterowicz, N., Merkel, S., & Oakes, LL (2007) Authorized and unauthorized dosing ("proxy pca") of analgesic infusion pumps: position statement with clinical practice recommendations Pain Management Nursing, 8( 1). , 4-11.doi: 10.1016/j.pmn.2007.01.002