An Interfaculty Pain Curriculum: Lessons learned from six years experience

Minimal pain content has been documented in pre-licensure curricula and students lack important pain knowledge at graduation. To address this problem, we have implemented and evaluated a mandatory Interfaculty Pain Curriculum (IPC) yearly since 2002 for students (N = 817 in 2007) from six Health Science Faculties/Departments. The 20-h pain curriculum contiues to involve students from Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy as part of their 2nd or 3rd year program. Evaluation methods based on Kirkpatrick's model now include evaluation of Comprehensive Pain Management Plan along with the previoulsy used Pain Knowledge and Beliefs Questionnaire (PKPQ) and Daily Content and Process Questionnaires (DCPQ). Important lessons have been learned and subsequent changes made in this iterative curriculum design based on extensive evaluation over the 6-year period. Modifications have included case development more relevant to the diverse student groups, learning contexts that are uni-, inter-, and multi-professional, and facilitator development in working with inter professional student groups. PKBQ scores have improved in all years with a statistically significant change on correct responses 14% to 17%. The DCPQ responses have also indicated consistently that most students (85-95%) rated highly the patients panel, expert-lead clinically focused sessions, and small interprofessional groups. Relevancy and organization of the information presented have been generally rated highly from 80.3% to 91.2%. This curriculum continues to be a unique and valuable learning opportunity as we utilize lessons learned from extensive evaluation to move the pain agenda forward with pre-licensure health science students. (C) 2008 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.