Mapping of pain curricula across health professions programs at the University of Toronto.

BACKGROUND

There is a growing societal need for health professional competency in pain care. The University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain-Interfaculty Pain Curriculum (UTCSP-IPC) has been offered since 2002. Content and process have been updated annually. In addition, participating health professions programs have advanced their pain teaching. A curricular scan was needed to creatively and constructively advance the UTCSP-IPC.

AIM

The aim of this study was to map curricular pain content in participating health professions programs onto the UTCSP-IPC content as a first step to further curriculum design.

METHODS

UTCSP-IPC committee members and faculty representatives from six health profession programs completed a 27-item online survey in this collaborative action study. Descriptive statistics were completed in Microsoft Excel.

RESULTS

The UTCSP-IPC provided an average of 43.3% (range 32%-62%) of total pain content teaching hours to participating health professions students and a range of 8% to 100% of total opioid-related teaching hours. Curricular overlaps and gaps in pain content were identified and will be used to update and inform the iterative design of the UTCSP-IPC. Ninety-three percent of participating health professions faculty indicated that the interprofessional focus on pain care in the UTCSP-IPC was important.

CONCLUSION

This study highlighted the value of the UTCSP and areas of curricular refinement to ensure continued relevance in relationship to pain content within the six participating health professions programs. Mapping a coordinated approach between uniprofessional and interprofessional teaching will both meet the demands of professional competence and create greater applicability to future practice settings.