Undergraduate Pain Curricula for Healthcare Professionals

Page published 10 March 2010

Survey of undergraduate pain curricula for healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom – A short report.

The British Pain Society has published a comprehensive survey of the curricula of eight healthcare professions across the United Kingdom. It argues pain education in undergraduate courses is inadequate preparation for professional practice. Treatment of pain requires a multidisciplinary approach, but undergraduates learn about pain management in narrow professional groups.

The objectives of this research study were:

Describe the nature and content of pain curricula in undergraduate/pre-qualification programmes for healthcare professionals in major British university regions.
Explore the strategies to promote learning in pain management and the extent of interprofessional education in programmes.
Identify the pain management content recommended by regulatory bodies of healthcare professionals and the Quality Assurance Agency subject benchmarks

The survey concludes; teaching methods for pain education should encourage problem–solving, deeper learning and skill development rather than knowledge recall associated with surface learning. Students need to have the opportunity to learn together in a genuine interprofessional way, where they can gain an understanding of their roles in clinical practice.