KnowPain-50: a tool for assessing physician pain management education.
BACKGROUND
Despite a need for better physician pain management education, there are no widely accepted assessment or outcome measures to support this work.


OBJECTIVE
Create a self-assessment tool to measure physician educational needs and the effectiveness of chronic pain educational programs.


METHODS
We used expert consensus to draft a 142-item survey that covered essential areas of chronic pain management. We tested the survey in 106 physicians, including 22 pain management experts and used predefined psychometric criteria to eliminate 70 items. We then eliminated 22 remaining items that did not correlate with the management of a standardized chronic pain patient by 27 academic physicians. We evaluated internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha.


RESULTS
The final 50-item survey assessed physician knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in: 1) initial pain assessment; 2) defining goals and expectations; 3) development of a treatment plan; 4) implementation of a treatment plan; 5) reassessment and management of longitudinal care; and 6) management of environmental issues. The survey demonstrated good internal consistency in all physician populations studied (alpha = 0.77-0.85). Average scores in 84 "pilot" physician users of a CME Website (135.8-138.5) were significantly lower (P < 0.01) than scores in 27 academic physicians (150.0), or 22 pain experts (177.5).


CONCLUSIONS
This survey, the KnowPain-50, has good psychometric properties, correlates with clinical behaviors, and appears to distinguish between physicians with different levels of pain management expertise. It may be a useful measure of the effectiveness of physician pain management education programs.
Harris
John M
JM
Medical Directions, Inc., Tucson, AZ 85712, USA. sharris@md-inc.com
Fulginiti
John V
JV
Gordon
Paul R
PR
Elliott
Thomas E
TE
Davis
Bennet E
BE
Chabal
Charles
C
Kutob
Randa M
RM
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000379:methods*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D059408:Pain Management; D010820:Physicians; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires