Content analysis of chronic pain content at three undergraduate medical schools in Ontario

Abstract

Background: It has been well documented that interdisciplinary, comprehensive pain education can foster positive pain beliefs among medical students, in addition to improving students' abilities to diagnose and treat pain. Though some work has been done to quantify the number of hours of pain education students receive, the content itself has received little attention. Aims: This study seeks to identify what medical students learn about chronic pain throughout an undergraduate medical degree program in Ontario. Methods: Three undergraduate medical schools in Ontario were selected on the basis of variety in curricular structure and instructional methods. Written documents comprising the formal curriculum were analyzed through qualitative and quantitative content analysis. These findings were compared with promising practices from the pain education literature. Results: The three curricula studied here dedicate the bulk of pain education to three topics: pain mechanisms, pain management, and opioids and addiction. The curricula vary considerably in organization of content and hours of pain training. All three curricula were found to contain negative pain beliefs that characterize pain patients as difficult, overwhelming, and unrewarding to work with. Two of the medical schools studied here do not have a pain curriculum. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate a need for medical schools to develop comprehensive, interdisciplinary pain curricula. Though increasing the number of hours of pain training is crucial, equally imperative is a consideration of what, and how, students learn about pain. RÉSUMÉ Contexte: Il est bien documenté que l'enseignement interdisciplinaire et global de la douleur en médecine peut favoriser une modification positive à l'égard des croyances positives chez les étudiants en médecine, en plus d'augmenter leur capacité à diagnostiquer et à traiter la douleur. Bien que certains travaux aient été menés pour quantifier le nombre d'heures prodiguées en éducation sur la douleur le contenu des cursus a reçu peu d'attention. But: Cette étude cherche à déterminer ce que les étudiants en médecine dans la province de l'Ontario apprennent au sujet de la douleur chronique tout au long de leurs études. Méthodes: Trois curriculums de médecine de premier cycle de l'Ontario ont été choisies de manière à refléter la diversité des structures et des méthodes d'enseignements. Les documents écrits comprenant le programmeplan cours officiel ont été scutés par une analyse de contenu qualitative et quantitative. Les observations ont été comparées à des pratiques prometteuses décrites dans la littérature sur l'éducation médicale de la douleur. Résultats: Les trois curriculums étudiés consacrent la majeure partie de l'éducation à la douleur à trois sujets: les mécanismes de la douleur; la gestion de la douleur; et les opioïdes et la dépendance. Le contenu des curriculum varient considérablement en ce qui concerne le cursus de formation et le nombre d'heures qui y sont consacrées. Les trois curriculums contenaie...

Paediatric pain education for health care professionals

“…In medicine, despite gradual advances in undergraduate pain education, the investigation of undergraduate medical programmes in Canada has highlighted that some continue to lack structure in delivering proper integrated, interdisciplinary content. 13,42 These findings are corroborated internationally in the APPEAL study, a Europe-wide review of pain education for undergraduate health care professionals evaluating curricula from 242 medical schools. 1,9 It was found that 69% of medical schools across Europe have no dedicated pain teaching, with notable inconsistencies in content and a lack of practical teaching methods in pain management—only 26% of courses used placement-based teaching.…”

Comparison between red wine and isolated trans-resveratrol on the prevention and regression of atherosclerosis in LDLr (−/−) mice

“…The oil present in the diets was extracted following the procedure described by Bligh & Dyer [28]. Samples were esterified according to a previously described procedure [29].…”

What are medical students taught about persistent physical symptoms? A scoping review of the literature

“…A number of studies demonstrate success in teaching on the topic of chronic non-cancer pain. Teaching interventions tended to include a foundation of knowledge such as teaching on pain mechanisms, pharmacology, and pain management [37,38]. Such theory-driven interventions led to improved scores on assessment [39].…”

“…Methods of teaching should be considered in the explicitly taught curriculum. Authors recommended an integrated approach [40,41] and one which drew on the skills and knowledge from a variety of disciplines [37,42]. Curriculum mapping was recommended by Howman et al [33] in order to identify ways in which this integration could be implemented.…”