Chronic pain is increasingly recognized as a public health problem. We assessed the effectiveness of a multi-modal, interprofessional educational approach aimed at empowering healthcare professionals to make deliberative changes, especially in opiate prescribing practices. Education activities included enduring webcasts, regional interprofessional roundtable events, and state-level conference presentations within targeted Kentucky and West Virginia regions of the United States. Over 1,000 participants accessed the various activities. For the live events, the largest groups reached included nurses (38.1%), nurse practitioners (31.2%), and physicians (22.1%). In addition to our reach, higher levels of educational effectiveness were measured, specifically, learner's intentions to change practice patterns, confidence in meeting patient's needs, and knowledge of pain management guidelines. The majority of the conference (58%) and roundtable (69%) participants stated they intend to make a practice change in one or more areas of chronic pain patient management in post-event evaluation. Differences in pre- and post-activity responses on the measures of confidence and knowledge, with additional comparison to a control population who were not in attendance, were analyzed using non-parametric tests of significance. While neither activity produced significant changes in confidence from pre-activity, participants were more confident post-activity than their control group peers. There were significant changes in knowledge for both live event and webcast participants. Impactful chronic pain continuing the education that emphasizes collaborative care is greatly needed; these results show that the approaches taken here can impact learner's knowledge and confidence, and hold potential for creating change in how opioid prescribing is managed.

Due to a complex set of circumstances including culture, poverty, low educational achievement, and limited access to dental care, the oral health of rural Appalachians is poorer than that of people in other parts of Kentucky. Limited health care dollars go to primary medical care which may be the only contact these individuals have with the health care system. Consequently, primary care physicians can help improve oral health. The University of Kentucky College of Dentistry (UKCD) and the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine (PCSOM) developed an oral health education block for third-year PCSOM students. Eleven UKCD faculty and one PCSOM faculty participated in the two-day, sixteen-hour oral health curriculum. Knowledge retention data from the post-tests was collected four months after the educational program. Students significantly improved their performance in six of the topic areas, with performance staying the same in one area and dropping significantly in one area. Focus groups were conducted with sixteen (two groups of eight) randomly selected students one year after the educational program. Students reported using the knowledge and oral exam techniques included in the course and felt that it was a valuable addition to their curriculum.

It is the purpose of this study to consider the transforming influence of recent curriculum theories in the field of secondary mathematics. These theories are vitally affecting mathematical instruction from a standpoint of both quantity and quality. Throughout the discussion, an acquaintance with the older literature of educational aims and values is presupposed. For the sake of brevity, moreover, the familiar, traditional point of view in the teaching of mathematics will be referred to only in a prefatory way.

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