Medical undergraduate students' beliefs and attitudes toward pain – How do they mature?

Abstract

At the University of Helsinki, pain-related topics are taught throughout medical studies but without a formal pain curriculum. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students' attitudes towards pain. A questionnaire using a 6-point Likert scale was constructed to measure pain-related attitudes and beliefs described in previous studies. After a pilot study, the questionnaire was developed to assess attitudes towards elderly patients' pain, prescription of opioids, assessment of pain and anxiety concerning chronic pain and its treatment. An electronic questionnaire with seven demographic and 28 pain-related items was sent via e-mail to 680 medical students at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Three reminders were sent with a new letter of encouragement. The students had 3 weeks to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire was returned by 63.4% of the students (N=430). There were statistically significant differences between the students in different study years showing increasing empathy towards elderly patients' pain (p<0.001), willingness to prescribe opioids (p<0.001) and anxiety about meeting patients suffering from chronic pain (p<0.01). Final year students felt significantly more often anxious about seeing a chronic pain patient (p<0.05) compared with the first year students. Female students were more anxious about seeing a patient suffering from chronic pain (p<0.05) and they were less confident of their ability to treat chronic pain patients in primary care (p<0.001) than the male students. The general attitudes of students mature as hoped for during medical studies. Attitudes towards treating the pain of cancer patients and elderly patients are positive. Attention should be paid to helping students to cope with their emotions and to reducing their anxiety about meeting patients with chronic pain.

Reconhecimento da dor no recém-nascido por alunos de medicina, residentes de pediatria e neonatologia

“…So, the specific and formal teaching about pain in general during medical qualification is minimal and mainly addresses surgical questions, while during specialization in Pediatrics and Neonatology, teaching is during daily practice, depending on the concepts and prejudices of physicians teaching residents. The shortage of teaching about pain in different age groups in medical courses has been reported by different authors [20][21][22][23] . In the University of Helsinki, where there was no formal pain course at the time of the study, 430 medical students were interviewed 21 and it was found that attitudes about pain evaluation and treatment have matured along the graduation years.…”

“…The shortage of teaching about pain in different age groups in medical courses has been reported by different authors [20][21][22][23] . In the University of Helsinki, where there was no formal pain course at the time of the study, 430 medical students were interviewed 21 and it was found that attitudes about pain evaluation and treatment have matured along the graduation years. Other authors indicate that a multidisciplinary curriculum on pain improves practical actions of medical students and residents in terms of pain evaluation and treatment in different age groups [20][21][22][23] .…”

“…In the University of Helsinki, where there was no formal pain course at the time of the study, 430 medical students were interviewed 21 and it was found that attitudes about pain evaluation and treatment have matured along the graduation years. Other authors indicate that a multidisciplinary curriculum on pain improves practical actions of medical students and residents in terms of pain evaluation and treatment in different age groups [20][21][22][23] . So, some curriculum interventions may influence and even change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of medical students and graduating physicians 14,18=24 .…”

Effective teaching modifies medical student attitudes toward pain symptoms

“…One of these surrogates is the attitude toward pain [2,3,6,16]. Measurement tools have been the actual perception of main symptoms, active inquiries on the duration, quality and intensity of pain, pain quantification (for example through visual analogue scale) and the use of analgesic therapy [17].…”

Knowledge toward Cancer Pain and the Use of Opioid Analgesics among Medical Students in their Integrated Clinical Clerkship

“…In the studies done by Turner and Weiner,7 Niemi-Murola, Po¨yhia¨ and Kalso, 8 Po¨yhia¨ and Kalso, 9 Watt-Watson and co-workers, 10 Sloan and co-workers, 11 and Po¨yhia¨and co-workers, 5 in the medical schools they surveyed in the U.S. and Finland, teaching of pain related topics is fragmented, important topics are poorly covered and specifi c curricula for pain are uncommon.…”