“The Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education provide a valuable tool that will contribute to the way in which Australian health professionals assess and manage pain, based on their exposure through education.”
Alignment with existing standards
Australian health practitioners are bound by a range of standards that are designed to promote safe, consistent and reliable health care. These include health quality standards (e.g. National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards) and professional standards (e.g. Board and Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency Standards). Australian health educators are also bound by professional and quality standards (e.g. Tertiary Education Quality and Standards).
The Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education are national, voluntary standards that intersect existing standards by specifically highlighting best practice in respect to the way in which pain management education for health practitioners is designed, developed, delivered and evaluated.
A tool for education and practice
The Standards provide a practical tool to strengthen how health practitioners assess and manage pain, through the quality of education they receive. As voluntary benchmarks, they support educational organisations to ensure curricula meet community expectations regarding what, and how, health practitioners learn.
They may also be applied at an individual level by health educators and practitioners working with people experiencing pain.
Supporting reflective practice
Self-reflective practice is ingrained in professional standards for Australian health practitioners and education professionals and is also highlighted within the Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education. When using the standards to reflect on one’s own practice, it is important to consider your training, clinical or educational role and scope of practice, and to recognise that not every standard will be relevant to your experience.
We encourage you to reflect on each individual standard at a personal level with consideration to your values, beliefs, performance and behaviour, and the outcomes you achieve as an educator or practitioner. This could be done through journaling, discussion with colleagues, reviewing feedback from learners, or as a part of a continuing professional development activity.
Strengthening professional and organisational capability
Health educators can identify areas of strength and areas requiring further development, using the Standards to guide improvement. At an organisational level, the Standards can support evidence-based decisions about resourcing and advancing best practice in pain management education and training.
Individual educators play a critical role in shaping the system that prepares Australian health practitioners — and ultimately in improving the care experience of people living with pain.
