“The Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education is the first step to achieving better outcomes for individuals living with chronic pain through better education of their healthcare practitioners.”
The scale of the problem
Pain accounts for up to one in five presentations to medical practitioners and costs the community billions of dollars in direct healthcare expenditure, disability and lost productivity. Yet formal education in pain management is often limited or inadequately assessed in many medical schools and specialist colleges, where pain is frequently viewed as a symptom of another disease.
A shift in education and approach
The Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education represent an important first step to achieving better outcomes for individuals living with chronic pain through better education of their healthcare practitioners. The standards shift the focus from a disease-centric approach to pain, to a person-centred one, emphasising the importance of effective communication styles. Their principles can be adapted to suit the needs of the learner, whether at an undergraduate or postgraduate level and will be able to assist educators in formalising curricula within medical schools and specialists’ colleges where pain management is often under-represented.
There is also an emphasis on self-reflexive and self-aware practice, key skills that make us better and more empathetic healthcare practitioners. These skills and values are not only important for dealing with individuals living with chronic pain, but with all patients as their healthcare needs change throughout their life.
Looking ahead
We hope that through the adoption of the standards, healthcare practitioners across their career spectrum will start to shift their management in how they deal with individuals living with chronic pain in a more empathetic, person-centred, evidence-based manner.
