Abstract
BackgroundPain management is a challenge and effective treatment requires professionals to collaborate if they are to address the needs of patients with pain. Comprehensive education and training is key to helping skilled professionals provide the best pain care possible. The objective of this work was to study the content of the pain education provided to undergraduates in healthcare and veterinary programs in Spain.MethodsA survey was developed on the basis of previous surveys that had been used in the field. The final version included 31 questions about different issues on pain education, including, type of subject, number of pain mandatory/elective hours, and specific content covered. The survey was sent to all course leaders for all subjects on the undergraduate programs in Dentistry, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Medicine, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Psychology, and Veterinary Science, in Catalonia, Spain. The survey was conducted from January to June, 2018. Students’ t-test were used to study mean differences in responses.ResultsA total of 550 course leaders from all healthcare undergraduate programs in Catalan universities took part. There were considerable differences in the number of pain-related hours among disciplines: Nursing reported the highest number of hours, and Psychology the lowest. The area least covered by all the disciplines was the “Management of pain”, and particularly the content related to the most vulnerable members of society (i.e., youths, the elderly and special populations). No interprofessional educational program on pain was identified.ConclusionsPain is not such a large component of the undergraduate healthcare curriculum in Spain as could be expected given the extent of pain and its impact. Curricula need to be changed so that the problems all stakeholders have with pain care can be addressed.
Highlights
Despite advances in the treatment of individuals with chronic pain [1], patients do not always receive the treatment they need, as access to treatment is still a major challenge for many [2]
A total of 1564 course leaders were identified by reviewing the curricula and the teaching guidelines available on the website of each university, and they were asked to participate by responding to an online survey
Sample characteristics Course leaders from all healthcare (i.e., Dentistry, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Medicine, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, and Psychology) and Veterinary Science undergraduate programs of the 11 private and public Catalan universities participated in the survey
Summary
Despite advances in the treatment of individuals with chronic pain [1], patients do not always receive the treatment they need, as access to treatment is still a major challenge for many [2]. Two other studies have compared pain education programs in various health professions: one was conducted in the United Kingdom [9], and the other in Norway [10], and the results of both show the very few hours devoted to pain. These three studies reported on pain education programs in several health care disciplines, they left out some that have important implications. Only Leegaard and colleagues included Psychology, a discipline that is key to the treatment of individuals with pain, chronic pain, and they received limited information from just one participant in the study.
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