| Title |
Medical students’ perspectives of their clinical comfort and curriculum for acute pain management
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Journal of Pain Research, August 2018
|
| DOI | 10.2147/jpr.s159422 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Uyen Evelyn Tran, Janeva Kircher, Priya Jaggi, Hollis Lai, Tracey Hillier, Samina Ali |
| Abstract |
Acute pain is a common presenting complaint in health care. Yet, undertreatment of pain remains a prevailing issue that often results in poor short- and long-term patient outcomes. To address this problem, initiatives to improve teaching on pain management need to begin in medical school. In this study, we aimed to describe medical students' perspectives of their curriculum, comfort levels, and most effective pain teaching modalities. A cross-sectional, online survey was distributed to medical students at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) from late May to early July 2015. Data were collected from pre-clerkship (year 1 and 2) and clerkship (year 3 and 4) medical students for demographic characteristics, knowledge, comfort, and attitudes regarding acute pain management. A total of 124/670 (19.6%) surveys were returned. Students recalled a median of 2 (interquartile range [IQR]=4), 5 (IQR=3.75), 4 (IQR=8), and 3 (IQR=3.75) hours of formal pain education from first to forth year, respectively. Clerkship students were more comfortable than pre-clerks with treating adult pain (52.1% of pre-clerks "uncomfortable" versus 22.9% of clerks, p<0.001), and overall, the majority of students were uncomfortable with managing pediatric pain (87.6% [64/73] pre-clerks and 75.0% [36/48] clerks were "uncomfortable"). For delivery of pain-related education, the majority of pre-clerks reported lectures as most effective (51.7%), whereas clerks chose bedside instruction (43.7%) and small group sessions (23.9%). Notably, 54.2%, 39.6%, and 56.2% of clerks reported incorrect doses of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and morphine, respectively, for adults. For children, 54.2%, 54.2%, and 78.7% of clerks reported incorrect doses for these same medications. Medical students recall few hours of training in pain management and report discomfort in treating and assessing both adult and (more so) pediatric pain. Strategies are needed to improve education for future physicians regarding pain management. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 1 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 1 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 44 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 44 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 8 | 18% |
| Student > Bachelor | 6 | 14% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 5 | 11% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 3 | 7% |
| Other | 2 | 5% |
| Other | 7 | 16% |
| Unknown | 13 | 30% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 12 | 27% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 6 | 14% |
| Social Sciences | 2 | 5% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 2 | 5% |
| Linguistics | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 6 | 14% |
| Unknown | 15 | 34% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 August 2018.
All research outputs
#20,529,173
of 23,098,660 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Pain Research
#1,613
of 1,773 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#288,931
of 331,041 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Pain Research
#55
of 58 outputs
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