Interprofessional education to improve pain management.
Pain is a prevalent problem in community care and there is evidence that knowledge and understanding of pain management can be lacking among health professionals, leading to under-treatment. This mini-review aimed to assess the effectiveness of interprofessional education on health professionals' pain documentation and on the pain intensity reported by patients. A search of key databases identified two randomized controlled trials and two quasi-experimental studies. Two studies assessed change in pain documentation following interprofessional education; one revealed a statistically significant improvement and another indicated 29% increase in documentation of pain assessments. Two studies demonstrated no significant changes in patient outcomes, while the other revealed significant improvements. However, integration of the results was not possible because of the various methods of measurement used by the different researchers. Although broadly supportive of interprofessional education, the evidence is not helpful in determining the best way of improving pain management in the community.
King's College London, UK.
Alireza
A
Irajpour
Ian
I
Norman
Peter
P
Griffiths
D001294:Attitude to Health; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration; D004282:Documentation / Q000592:standards; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D015402:Nursing Education Research / Q000458:organization & administration; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research / Q000458:organization & administration; D009737:Nursing Records / Q000592:standards; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012107:Research Design; D017749:Total Quality Management