Office of Professional Development and Educational Scholarship, Queen's University, 385 Princess Street, Kingston, ON, K7L 1B9, Canada.
Master of Health Professions Education, Queen's University, 99 University Avenue, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Mar 8;24(1):258. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05181-z.
Pain and addiction are one of the most common reasons for adults to seek health care, yet educational programs focused on pain are often underrepresented in medical school curricula. In January 2021, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) launched an online national, bilingual, competency-based curriculum for undergraduate medical (UGME) students in pain management and substance use in response to the opioid crisis and to bridge the content gaps in programs across Canada. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the pilot of this national curriculum.
UGME students, from across Canada, participated in the program evaluation by completing online pre- and post-program surveys that assessed the influence of the curriculum on participants' knowledge as well as the value, usability, and feasibility of this curriculum.
Participants' perceived confidence in their new knowledge and in utilizing resources required to maintain their knowledge significantly increased (75% and 51% respectively). Their perceived knowledge that addressed the 72 learning objectives within the curriculum significantly increased from pre- to post-program. Over 90% of participants reported that the curriculum was valuable, feasible, and usable. The most frequently discussed program strengths were the clear and comprehensive content, interactive and well-organized design, and relevance of curriculum content for future clinical practice. The overall weakness of the curriculum included the length, repetition of content, the lack of clarity and relevance of the assessment questions, end-user technology issues, and French translation discrepancies. Participant's recommendations for improving the curriculum included streamlining content, addressing technology issues, and enhancing the clarity and relevance of assessment questions embedded within each of the modules.
Participants agreed that an online pain management and substance use curriculum is a valuable, usable, and feasible learning opportunity. Given the severity of the opioid crisis in Canada, these online modules provide a curriculum that can be integrated into existing UGME programs or can provide self-directed learning.
疼痛和成瘾是成年人寻求医疗保健的最常见原因之一，但专注于疼痛的教育项目在医学院课程中往往代表性不足。2021 年 1 月，加拿大医学学院协会（AFMC）针对阿片类药物危机，推出了一个针对本科医学生（UGME）的在线、双语、基于能力的全国疼痛管理和物质使用课程，以填补加拿大各地课程的内容空白。本研究旨在评估该国家课程的试点情况。
来自加拿大各地的 UGME 学生通过完成在线课程前后调查参与课程评估，评估课程对参与者知识的影响，以及该课程的价值、可用性和可行性。
参与者对自己新知识的掌握程度以及利用所需资源来维持知识的能力的感知明显提高（分别为 75%和 51%）。他们对课程中 72 项学习目标的感知知识显著增加。超过 90%的参与者报告称该课程具有价值、可行且可用。课程的优点主要是内容清晰全面、互动性强、组织有序，课程内容与未来临床实践相关。课程的整体弱点包括篇幅长、内容重复、评估问题的清晰度和相关性不足、最终用户技术问题以及法语翻译差异。参与者对改进课程的建议包括简化内容、解决技术问题以及增强每个模块中嵌入的评估问题的清晰度和相关性。
参与者一致认为，在线疼痛管理和物质使用课程是一种有价值、可用且可行的学习机会。鉴于加拿大阿片类药物危机的严重性，这些在线模块提供了一个可以整合到现有的 UGME 课程中的课程，或者可以提供自主学习的机会。
