How do the attitudes, confidence, knowledge and understanding differ in pre-registration healthcare students towards treating people with chronic pain: an observational, cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Attitudes, knowledge and understanding may predispose practitioner adherence to clinical guidelines for chronic pain. To date there is no data exploring this in adult, mental health and paediatric nursing, or occupational therapy, podiatry and physiotherapy student healthcare professionals at the same institution. MethodsWe approached 1383 students enrolled on pre-registration healthcare programmes at a Scottish University, using the Healthcare Practitioners Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS) and Pain Knowledge and Understanding Confidence Questionnaire (PUnCQ).Results: Three hundred and forty-six students completed the survey (response rate 25%).There was a significant effect of degree discipline on HC-PAIRS and PUnCQ with a moderate effect size of ηp 2 = .212 and ηp 2 = .204, respectively. Postgraduate pre-registration physiotherapy students had more positive attitudes toward function with pain, M(SD) HC-PAIRS score=49.6(8.9) CI 95% = 46.5 -52.8, and greater confidence toward management of chronic pain M(SD)= 6.3 CI 95% = 5.9 -6.8 compared to the other disciplines surveyed.Undergraduate physiotherapy and mental health nursing also displayed significantly more positive attitudes M(SD) = 55.2 (10.2), CI 95% 53. 3 -57.2, and 62.6 (7.6), 60.1 -65.2, respectively. Conclusions: Physiotherapy students have more biopsychosocial-orientated attitudes, and higher confidence toward the management of people in pain than the other disciplines surveyed. Despite similar levels of knowledge and understanding of pain.

International, multi-disciplinary, cross-section study of pain knowledge and attitudes in nursing, midwifery and allied health professions students

“…Whilst Carroll et al, (2020) [40] found greater improvement amongst their nursing cohorts' attitudes (1.6%-7% amongst different nursing specialities) than in this study, 2.4%, our findings accord with Amponsah et al (2020) [62] and Leahy et al (2019) [63] that final year nurses have considerable deficits in pain knowledge and attitudes. Mukoka, Olivier and Ravat (2019) [64] found more positive attitudes in their nursing and occupational therapy students but not as positive among their physiotherapy students.…”

“…The first step towards addressing the deficiency in pain education among HCPs would be to assess current pain understanding amongst HCP students. A number of studies have explored this issue, however, these studies are generally limited to single institutions, discrete regions or only a small number of health care disciplines, reducing the generalisability of the findings [36][37][38][39][40]. If some disciplines were found to have poorer pain-related understanding than others, this difference could be explored, and pain education resources could be targeted accordingly.…”

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Biopsychosocial Pain Education upon Health Care Professional Pain Attitudes, Knowledge, Behavior and Patient Outcomes

“…This allows new information to be processed as it can be difficult to execute in practice immediately after teaching, and confidence to practise new information takes time to develop. 8,25,60,74 Clinical records still present a potential issue of responses in keeping with social desirability although this may have less of an impact when records are observed for an extended period.…”

Pain Neurophysiology Knowledge Enhances Attitudes toward Biopsychosocial Management of Low Back Pain among Japanese Physical Therapists

“…One possible factor could be the level of pain neurophysiology knowledge. 9 , 10 , 11 ) Colleary et al 9 ) conducted a two-arm randomized controlled trial among physical therapy students. The experimental group attended a 70-minute group lecture on pain neurophysiology education (PNE), which aimed to reconceptualize patient understanding of pain from a biomedical to a biopsychosocial perspective, 12 ) whereas the control group attended a 70-minute group lecture on red-flag signs and symptoms of LBP.…”