Student evaluations of an interprofessional education experience in pain management

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) is vital to healthcare professionals and is especially relevant in the context of pain management. Despite its importance, it is often difficult to provide given limited time and resources and challenges with coordinating schedules across professions. This study explored satisfaction with a one-day IPE workshop on pain management. Seventy-three students from seven professions completed a questionnaire evaluating the workshop. Results suggested that students rated all aspects of the workshop highly, but particularly valued hearing client's experiences with pain. Furthermore, students perceived that their knowledge of pain and interprofessional relationships improved following the workshop. Differences emerged between professions, with students classified as psychosocial reporting greater satisfaction with the IPE than students from biomedical professions. This study supports research previously conducted on IPE in pain management and suggests that when time and resources are constrained, there is value in offering a brief IPE workshop on pain management.

Interprofessional pain education—with, from, and about competent, collaborative practice teams to transform pain care

“… 24 Studies of IPE have found differences between professions, with students in professions deemed psychosocial were more positive about IPE than students in biomedical career tracks. 13 Similarly, Erickson et al 9 found that IP mentorship and group participation improved first year medical students' pain management skills but did not have the same effect on fourth year nursing student performance. Differences were attributed in part to experience in clinical settings but also suggested that combining different levels of students is acceptable if they are of similar age and life experience.…”

The beliefs of healthcare students about the harmfulness of daily activities for their back: a cross-sectional study

“…This education would ideally overlap between different professional groups, both in academic and clinical environments, to ensure that HCP advice does not further disable or distress the person with LBP. Interprofessional education (IPE) is increasingly proposed as a means of preparing HCPs to collaboratively provide patient-centred clinical care for patients with pain [59,60], with some preliminary evidence demonstrating positive outcomes from pain-focussed IPE [61][62][63][64].…”

Pain medicine content, teaching and assessment in medical school curricula in Australia and New Zealand

“…IPL has been shown to be effective for improving medical students’ pain competencies in a variety of settings, including general, paediatric and acute pain management [ 54 , 76 – 78 ]. However, medical schools in this study did not identify IPL as a delivery strategy for pain medicine education.…”