A Blueprint of Pain Curriculum Across Prelicensure Health Sciences Programs: One NIH Pain Consortium Center of Excellence in Pain Education (CoEPE) Experience

Abstract

To improve U.S. pain education and promote inter-institutional and inter-professional collaborations, the NIH Pain Consortium has funded 12 sites to develop Centers of Excellence in Pain Education (CoEPE). Each site was given the tasks of development, evaluation, integration, and promotion of pain management curriculum resources, including case studies that will be shared nationally. Collaborations among schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and others were encouraged. The John D. Loeser CoEPE is unique in that it represents extensive regionalization of health science education, in this case in the region covering the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI). This paper describes a blueprint of pain content and teaching methods across the University of Washington’s six health sciences schools and provides recommendations for improvement in pain education at the prelicensure level. The Schools of Dentistry and Physician Assistant provide the highest percentage of total required curriculum hours devoted to pain compared with the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social Work. The findings confirm paucity of pain content in health sciences curricula, missing International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) curriculum topics, and limited use of innovative teaching methods such as problem-based and team-based learning.

An Interprofessional Consensus of Core Competencies for Prelicensure Education in Pain Management: Curriculum Application for Nursing

“…As one of 12 sites funded by the National Institute of Health Pain Consortium to develop the Centers of Excellence in Pain Education, the University of Washington examined curricula in six prelicensure health sciences programs serving students within their Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho networks and confirmed the paucity of pain content in the majority of these programs (Doorenbos et al, 2013). The physician assistant program at the University of Washington reported the highest number of hours (145), which represented 17% of their curriculum.…”

“…Studies were included if they were about U.S. programs, written in English, and conducted within the past 10 years. Although several studies were related to pain knowledge in clinical environments and postgraduate curricula, only five studies examined general pain knowledge in the prelicensure environment (Briggs, 2010; Doorenbos et al, 2013; Plaisance & Logan, 2006; Samuels & Leveille, 2010; Shaw & Lee, 2010). Four of the studies discussed student attitudes, knowledge, and experiences, and only one had a specific focus on prelicensure curricula (Doorenbos et al, 2013).…”

“…Although several studies were related to pain knowledge in clinical environments and postgraduate curricula, only five studies examined general pain knowledge in the prelicensure environment (Briggs, 2010; Doorenbos et al, 2013; Plaisance & Logan, 2006; Samuels & Leveille, 2010; Shaw & Lee, 2010). Four of the studies discussed student attitudes, knowledge, and experiences, and only one had a specific focus on prelicensure curricula (Doorenbos et al, 2013). Of note, a greater number of international studies have examined student knowledge and attitudes related to pain (Al Khalaileh & Al Qadire, 2013; Chiu, Trinca, Lim, & Tuazon, 2003; Prem et al, 2011; Rahimi-Madiseh, Tavakol, & Dennick, 2010); however, similar to the U.S. review, few have examined the quantity or nature of pain content within the nursing curricula.…”

“…The physician assistant program at the University of Washington reported the highest number of hours (145), which represented 17% of their curriculum. The prelicensure nursing program at the University of Washington reported only 8 hours of pain content across 2 years, representing just 1% of their training hours (Doorenbos et al, 2013). In response to the significant gaps found in the study of their own institutions based on existing competencies for prelicensure programs and the recently published interprofessional competencies (Fishman et al, 2013), the authors of the current study recommend that programs should develop a blueprint of their existing curriculum as a foundation for implementation of future improvements that incorporate both professional prelicensure and interprofessional competencies.…”

The Current State of Physical Therapy Pain Curricula in the United States: A Faculty Survey

“…Twelve CoEPEs were identified and provided funding to develop interprofessional pain education curriculum and materials to be shared nationally. 9 Conclusions of a survey of prelicensure health sciences programs from 1 of the CoEPEs recommended incorporating more advanced teaching methods, including problem-based and team-based learning. Integrating the core competencies and recommendations by the CoEPEs within the foundation of PT education, will provide physical therapists with the core knowledge to stand with all health professions engaged in comprehensive pain management.…”