Resident Knowledge and Perception of Pain Management

Jose Garcia; Levonti Ohanisian; Angel Sidley; Allison Ferris; George Luck; Garrett Basich; Abraham Garcia

doi:10.7759/cureus.6107

Resident Knowledge and Perception of Pain Management

Cureus. 2019 Nov 8;11(11):e6107. doi: 10.7759/cureus.6107.

Authors

Jose Garcia¹, Levonti Ohanisian², Angel Sidley³, Allison Ferris⁴, George Luck⁴, Garrett Basich⁵, Abraham Garcia⁶

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA.
² Orthopaedic Surgery, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA.
³ Biomedical Science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA.
⁴ Integrated Medical Science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA.
⁵ Medicine, St. Mary's College of California, Moraga, USA.
⁶ Microbiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.

Abstract

Chronic pain involves a complex mechanism that afflicts 50 million adults in the United States and incurs societal costs upwards of $560 billion annually. The consequences of this epidemic have resulted in an epidemic of its own, with the opioid crisis becoming a top priority in healthcare. Historically, the sub-optimal practices of overprescribing opioids and inadequate monitoring of iatrogenic addiction have contributed to this problem. If progress is to be made in this area, it is imperative that we examine how future physicians are being trained to manage pain. We examined internal medicine resident knowledge regarding pain as well as their satisfaction with medical school preparation in this regard using two surveys: The Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP) and The Medical School Pain Curriculum Survey (MSPCS). Residents scored an overall 60.7% on the knowledge assessment survey, and less than 50% of respondents agreed that their medical school curriculum had prepared them sufficiently. This suggests that improvements can be made in medical school curricula regarding pain management education to better train physicians on how to manage pain, particularly in an era that demands expertise in this area.

Keywords: medical education; opioid education; opioids; pain curriculum; pain management; residency education.