Niemi-Murola Leila, Nieminen Juha T, Kalso Eija, Pöyhiä Reino
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland.
Eur J Pain. 2007 Aug;11(6):700-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpain.2006.12.001. Epub 2007 Jan 26.
At the University of Helsinki, pain-related topics are taught throughout medical studies but without a formal pain curriculum. The purpose of this study was to assess medical students' attitudes towards pain. A questionnaire using a 6-point Likert scale was constructed to measure pain-related attitudes and beliefs described in previous studies. After a pilot study, the questionnaire was developed to assess attitudes towards elderly patients' pain, prescription of opioids, assessment of pain and anxiety concerning chronic pain and its treatment. An electronic questionnaire with seven demographic and 28 pain-related items was sent via e-mail to 680 medical students at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Three reminders were sent with a new letter of encouragement. The students had 3 weeks to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire was returned by 63.4% of the students (N=430). There were statistically significant differences between the students in different study years showing increasing empathy towards elderly patients' pain (p<0.001), willingness to prescribe opioids (p<0.001) and anxiety about meeting patients suffering from chronic pain (p<0.01). Final year students felt significantly more often anxious about seeing a chronic pain patient (p<0.05) compared with the first year students. Female students were more anxious about seeing a patient suffering from chronic pain (p<0.05) and they were less confident of their ability to treat chronic pain patients in primary care (p<0.001) than the male students. The general attitudes of students mature as hoped for during medical studies. Attitudes towards treating the pain of cancer patients and elderly patients are positive. Attention should be paid to helping students to cope with their emotions and to reducing their anxiety about meeting patients with chronic pain.
在赫尔辛基大学，与疼痛相关的主题在整个医学学习过程中都会讲授，但没有正式的疼痛课程。本研究的目的是评估医学生对疼痛的态度。构建了一份使用6点李克特量表的问卷，以测量先前研究中描述的与疼痛相关的态度和信念。经过试点研究后，该问卷得到完善，用于评估对老年患者疼痛的态度、阿片类药物的处方、疼痛评估以及对慢性疼痛及其治疗的焦虑。一份包含7个人口统计学项目和28个与疼痛相关项目的电子问卷通过电子邮件发送给了芬兰赫尔辛基大学的680名医学生。发送了三次提醒，并附上了一封新的鼓励信。学生们有3周时间回答问卷。63.4%的学生（N = 430）返回了问卷。不同学习年份的学生之间存在统计学上的显著差异，表现为对老年患者疼痛的同理心增强（p < 0.001）、开具阿片类药物的意愿增强（p < 0.001）以及对会见慢性疼痛患者的焦虑增加（p < 0.01）。与一年级学生相比，最后一年的学生明显更常对会见慢性疼痛患者感到焦虑（p < 0.05）。与男学生相比，女学生对会见慢性疼痛患者更焦虑（p < 0.05），并且她们对在初级保健中治疗慢性疼痛患者的能力信心较低（p < 0.001）。学生的总体态度在医学学习期间如预期那样逐渐成熟。对治疗癌症患者和老年患者疼痛的态度是积极的。应注意帮助学生应对他们的情绪，并减少他们对会见慢性疼痛患者的焦虑。
