Background & Aims

Unrelieved pain remains a global health problem and the treatment gap is wider in the communities with inadequate health education. Unnecessarily suffering from untreated pain is a great burden in the developing countries. Limited facilities for pain treatment and poor access to drugs for pain relief are major contributing factors. There is enthusiasm for pain education and clinical training in developing countries and most governments and health administrations have embraced the challenge and are working towards eliminating significant barrier to practice changes.

Sub Saharan countries, like Kenya, have a great unmet need for pain relief in the midst of ravaging HIV and increasing cases of non-communicable diseases. The formal education curricula for healthcare workers allocates very few hours for pain and training partners bridge the knowledge gap with skills to manage pain.

This presentation on the partnerships in pain education in Kenya.

Methods

Kenya has eight universities offering bachelor degrees in medicine, pharmacy and nursing and two offering dental surgery. The curricula for each course are the same in all the universities

The undergraduate training curricula for medicine, dental surgery, pharmacy and nursing degrees were reviewed and the number of hours for pain education summed up. Pain is also briefly mentioned under other topics.

Several organizations in Kenya are involved in pain education. These include, the Ministry of Health, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), Kenya Society for Pain (KSP), Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEPHCA), Pain Free Hospital Initiative, Essential Pain Management and Daktari Online (online platform). Pain education hours from these organisations were sourced from the reports and timetable.

Results

The university curricula had 7 hours of pain teaching for Medicine, Pharmacy and nursing and 19 hours for Dentistry.

The non-university partners in pain education trained all the cadres in healthcare workers in clinical service.

The hours were as follows; Ministry of Health in collaboration with Kenya Hospices and palliative Care association did 8 hours, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) in collaboration with Kenya Society for Pain (KSP), 16 hours, Pain Free Hospital Initiative did 8 hours of teaching and is a one-year program with practicum and patient education, Essential Pain Management, 8 hours and Daktari Online (online platform) also 8 hours.

Conclusions

The partnerships are bridging the gap in expertise and knowledge in pain. These partners train all cadres of healthcare personnel and take pain education to different parts of the country. The trainings have improved pain and pain management knowledge where the basic training curricula was deficient creating greater awareness of the problem and more advocacy for better pain management.

References

1.Bond, M. (2011). Pain education issues in developing countries and responses to them by the International Association for the Study of Pain. Pain Res Management Nov-Dec 2011;16(6):404-6.
2.Ogboli-Nwasor, E., Hogans, B. (2020). Pain Education in Low-Resource Countries. IASP fact-sheets/pain-education-in-low-resource-countries/ (2020 accessed on 16th January 2022)
3.Briggs, E., Carr E. C. J , Whittaker, M. S. (2011). Survey of undergraduate pain curricula for healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom. Eur J Pain (8):789-95
4.Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Core Curriculum. https://kmpdc.go.ke/resources/mbchb.pdf. 2011 (accessed on the 17th Jan 2022)
5.Bachelor of Dental Surgery Core Curriculum. https://kmpdc.go.ke/resources/bds.pdf (2011) (accessed on the 17th Jan 2022)
6.School of Pharmacy Bachelor of Pharmacy Curriculum, University of Nairobi, 2010
7.School of Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing Curriculum, University of Nairobi, 2010
8.Hospices and Palliative care Units in Kenya https: //kehpca.org/pc-providers. (accessed 1 February 2022).
9.Pain Free Hospital Initiative in Kenya. Muinga E. (2015) https://ehospice.com/africa_posts/pain-free-hospital-initiative-in-kenya/ (2015, accessed 1 February 2022).

Presenting Author

Hellen Kariuki

Poster Authors

Hellen Kariuki

PhD

University of Nairobi

Lead Author

E-mail

Topics

  • Education