Date Presented 04/12/21
OTs and other health care professionals learn about assessment and intervention for pain in their entry level educational programs. The aim of this study was to identifying gaps and strengths in interdisciplinary health profession curricula as it relates to pain and subsequently the opioid crisis. Participants completed a survey and a focus group. Results show a mutual desire among faculty and students to implement additional pain education.
Primary Author and Speaker: Lauren Grasenick
Contributing Authors: Abigail Herman, Mairead Gormley, Erica Di Meo, Jessica Leonard
PURPOSE: The opioid crisis is evolving every year. Opioid dependency often starts with a prescription for pain medications due to some health concerns. This is supported by statistics as ‘3 out of 4 people who used heroin, misused prescription opioids first use’ (CMS RoadMap, 2019). Therefore, opioids are often associated with the management of pain. Pain management is an area of concern for occupational therapists. In preparation to understand how occupational therapists and other health professionals help patients manage pain, the researchers aspired to learn more about what these professionals taught and learned in their entry level education programs. The purpose of this study was to gather information with the intent of identifying gaps and strengths in interdisciplinary health profession curricula as it relates to the opioid crisis. Due to this growing epidemic, research was needed to investigate what is taught and learned about pain during entry level professional education programs.
DESIGN: The study used a qualitative research design with quantitative properties. Participants were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling from a healthcare university which included the College of Health Sciences and Chicago College of Pharmacy Illinois.
METHOD: A survey was designed by the researchers and informed by studies of pain curricula (IASP, 2017 & Rochman et al., 2013). The IASP was used as a framework to guide survey content that was developed in RedCap and disseminated via email. The programs included: physician assistant studies, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, physical therapy, clinical psychology, and pharmacy. Participants were invited to participate in a 40-minute focus group following the survey. Thematic coding was then utilized to analyze the data.
RESULTS: Five key themes were found: (1) each discipline has a unique perspective on pain (2) interprofessional collaboration and working as teams are important, (3) students and faculty agreed that many major areas were taught or learned but some disagreement was noted about a number of lesser pain topics, (4) students and faculty felt they understood the prevalence of opioid crisis, and (5) students and faculty agree that further education on pain is needed. Additionally, it was found that faculty and students agree that multidimensional nature of pain is taught and learned in the curricula and variabilities were noted between faculty and students’ understanding of what was taught and learned about the management of pain.
CONCLUSION: There was a mutual desire amongst faculty participants to implement additional pain education in the curricula, with a like-minded desire expressed by students to learn more. Faculty members indicated they would be interested in working with healthcare professionals from different programs to enhance student’s knowledge of the treatment of pain. There was agreement between faculty and students about the importance of collaborative efforts and referrals to appropriate healthcare professionals as a vital aspect of education that should be taught and learned. This may also serve as an opportunity for healthcare professional universities to implement exposure to real life scenarios as a way to increase exposure to interdisciplinary team approaches for students. Data gathered from faculty and students indicates reassuring interest in implementing additional pain education at this health profession university.
References
CMS RoadMap. (2019) https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/Emergency/Downloads/Opioid-e pidemic-roadmap.pdf
International Association for the Study of Pain. (2017). ISAP terminology: Pain terms. Retrieved from: https://www.iasp-pain.org/Education/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1698
Rochman, D. L., Sheehan, M. J., & Kulich, R. J. (2013). Evaluation of a pain curriculum for occupational therapists: experiences from a master’s-level graduate program over six years. Disability And Rehabilitation, 35(22), 1933–1940. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2013.76627
