Background & Aims

Pain is a complex phenomenon. Despite advances in pain education studies and available recommendations, implementation of practical solutions in undergraduate curricula is still poor (1-2). Lack of time spent on pain education and pedagogical approaches in undergraduate courses do not contribute to improve knowledge and skills health professionals need to manage patients with pain (1-3). Collaborative interprofessional work is essential for better pain control and positive health outcomes (3-5). Interprofessional health education in undergraduate courses is a critical step to ensure students develop skills for collaborative interprofessional work (3-5). Strategies and approaches that prepare students for collaborative practice, however, are rare in Brazil. The objectives of this study were: to describe the cultural adaptation of an interprofessional pain education experience in 6 undergraduate health courses of an excellence public Brazilian University.

Methods

Descriptive study that reports the experience of two Interprofessional Symposiums that gave rise to an interunit discipline focused on pain. The Symposiums and the discipline were inspired by the experience of the Interfaculty Pain Curriculum from University of Toronto and the recommendations of the IASP Interprofessional Pain Curriculum Outline (3,6-7). The organization of these Symposiums was proposed by the institutional leadership of the University, with the objective of stimulating interprofessional education in undergraduate courses in health. Pain was the theme chosen to stimulate interprofessional education. The initiative involved professors and students of nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy, medicine, psychology and occupational therapy. The objectives of the symposium were: to understand the multidimensional nature of pain and its components; to recognize specific and common actions among health professionals involved in pain management in the context of Primary Care.

Results

There were two Symposiums, with two days duration (16 hours) in each edition and two editions of the interunit discipline with 45 hours offered over 2 months. In 2018 there were 72 participants, 25 facilitators, 12 teachers and 12 guest speakers. In 2019 there were 93 participants, 23 facilitators, 10 teachers and 10 guest speakers. In 2020 the symposium was not held, due to the covid-19 pandemic, but in 2021 and 2022 the symposium initiative was transformed into an interunit discipline, with the participation of 73 and 53 students respectively, counting on teachers, facilitators and guest speakers. The event and the discipline featured multiprofessional sessions, thematic sessions and case studies in interprofessional format. The cultural adaptation of this interprofessional education strategy involved health service professionals, meeting their demands.

Conclusions

The participation and involvement of professors and health professionals for the study of pain, openness to dialogue, planning and organization of activities in a shared way, support from the leadership of health services, allowing the participation of health professionals and institutional support from the university were facilitators. The barriers were: difficulty in establishing a unique agenda between professors and students of the different courses involved and the incipience of interprofessional education initiatives at the University. The participants’ evaluation was positive regarding the theme, quality of content and interprofessional format. The case study with a team care plan proposal proved to be a powerful teaching-learning tool for both pain study and interprofessional collaboration.

References

1.Thompson K, Johnson MI, Milligan J, Briggs M. Twenty-five years of pain education research—what have we learned? Findings from a comprehensive scoping review of research into pre-registration pain education for health professionals. Pain 2018;159(11):2146-2158. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001352
2.Carr DB. Postmodern pain education: “from being to becoming”. Pain 2018;159, S49-S55. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001334
3.Judy Watt-Watson, RN MSc PhD, Chair (Nursing, Canada), Abrahão Fontes Baptista, BPhysio MSc PhD (Physical Therapy, Brazil), Eloise C. Carr, RN PhD MSc BSc (Hons) (Nursing, Canada), John H. Hughes, MBBS FRCA FFPMRCA (Medicine-Anesthesiology, United Kingdom), Robert N. Jamison, PhD (Psychology, USA), Hellen N. Kariuki, BDS MSc (Dentistry-Oral Medicine, Kenya), Jordi Miro, PhD (Psychology Spain), Gouri Shankar Bhattacharyya MD PhD (Medicine-Pediatric Oncology, India), Sigridur Zoëga, RN CNS PhD (Nursing, Iceland). IASP Interprofessional Pain Curriculum Outline Available at: https://www.iasp-pain.org/Education/CurriculumDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=205
4.Peduzzi, M., Norman, I. J., Germani, A. C. C. G., da Silva, J. A. M., & de Souza, G. C. (2013). Interprofessional education: training for healthcare professionals for teamwork focusing on users. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 47(4), 977-983. doi:10.1590/S0080-623420130000400029.
5.Silva FAM, Cassiani SHDB, Freire Filho JR. Interprofessional Health Education in the Region of the Americas. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem 2018;26:e3013. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.0000.3013
6.Hunter J, Watt-Watson J, McGillion M, Raman-Wilms L, Cockburn L, Lax L, et. al. An interfaculty pain curriculum: lessons learned from six years experience. Pain 2008;140(1):74-86. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2008.07.010
7.Watt-Watson J, Hunter J, Pennefather P, Librach L, Raman-Wilms L, Schreiber M, et al. An integrated undergraduate pain curriculum, based on IASP curricula, for six health science faculties. Pain 2004;110(1-2):140-148. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2004.03.019

Presenting Author

Valquiria Silva

Poster Authors

Marina de Goes Salvietti, PhD

RN, PhD

University of São Paulo, School of Nursing, Medical-Surgical Nursing Department, São Paulo, Brazil

Lead Author

E-mail

Valquiria Silva

Hospital das clinicas da faculdade de São Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Ana Claudia Camargo Gonçalves Germani

MD

Preventive Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Valéria Marli Leonello

RN

Professional Orientation Department, School of Nursing, University of Sao Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Mariana Eri Sato

MD

Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Ligia Ferreira Gomes

Pharmaceutical

Department of Clinical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Sao Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Raquel Casarotto

Physiotherapist

Department of Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine

Lead Author

E-mail

Kamilla Alves Costa Bispo

RN

University of Sao Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Hazem Adel Ashmawi

MD

Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo

Lead Author

E-mail

Topics

  • Education