Overview
Rural and regional communities experience a disproportionately high burden of chronic and complex pain, and access to specialist pain services can be limited by workforce shortages, distance and availability of services.
The project explores:
- How to better support medical specialists and trainees already working in rural and regional services to assess and manage pain as part of their existing clinical practice.
- How to build pain management capability within the existing rural and regional specialist workforce, rather than create new specialist pain medicine training posts.
By strengthening the knowledge, skills and confidence of specialists and trainees, the project aims to support more consistent, evidence-informed pain management, safer prescribing and referral pathways, improved continuity of care, and greater capacity to manage chronic and complex pain closer to where people live.
What does the project aim to achieve?
The rural and regional pain capability project aims to design a scalable model to increase pain management capability among non-GP specialists in rural and regional Australia with a focus on Specialist Training Program (STP) funded posts.
The project will:
- Assess the needs and demand for structured pain management education across rural trainees, specialists and health services.
- Identify gaps in pain management capability.
- Develop an education and capability model suitable for rural contexts.
- Explore practical and flexible approaches to education delivery.
- Develop a stakeholder-validated, implementation-ready model to support potential future rollout.
The Rural Pain Capability Project is identified as a priority area under the ANZCA Regional and Rural Workforce Strategy 2026–2028.
View the strategyOur approach
The project is being developed through consultation with:
- Rural and regional medical specialists and trainees.
- Supervisors and rural training networks.
- Rural and regional health services.
- Relevant specialist medical colleges and other stakeholders.
Consultation will help the project understand current pain management needs, capability gaps, barriers to education and the types of training that would be most useful in rural and regional practice.
Progress
The project is currently undertaking stakeholder engagement and needs assessment activities to better understand:
- Current pain management challenges in rural and regional practice.
- Capability gaps and educational needs.
- Barriers to accessing education and support.
- Opportunities to strengthen pain capability within existing training and healthcare settings.
Get involved!
Are you a non-GP medical specialist or trainee working in rural or regional Australia, a supervisor involved in specialist training, or a health service leader involved in workforce development?
Learn more below!
Frequently asked questions
The project aims to develop a practical and scalable model to strengthen chronic pain management skills and capability among non-GP specialists in rural and regional Australia.
People living in rural and regional areas can face limited access to specialist pain services due to workforce shortages, distance and availability of services. At the same time, medical specialists working in rural and regional services regularly care for people experiencing chronic, complex and recurrent pain.
The project is exploring how these clinicians can be better supported to assess and manage pain within their existing scope of practice, so that more patients can access appropriate chronic pain management closer to where they live.
The project is primarily focused on rural and regional non-GP specialist trainees, particularly those in specialist training program-funded training posts. Initial areas of focus include emergency medicine and anaesthesia.
The project also has broader applicability to rural and regional fellows and early-career specialists in these specialties.
Pain management capability refers to the knowledge, skills and confidence clinicians need to appropriately assess and manage pain within their existing clinical role.
This includes:
- Supporting appropriate clinical decision-making;
- Prescribing;
- Referral;
- Escalation of care.
A steering group is providing oversight of the project, supported by a working group and input from stakeholders across rural and regional Australia.
The project is also reviewing existing models and approaches to identify what is working well and what could be adapted to address the identified capability gap.
No, the project is not creating additional specialist pain medicine training posts or a new pathway to becoming a specialist pain medicine physician.
Instead, it aims to strengthen pain management capability of non-pain specialists who are already working, or training, in rural and regional settings.
The project aims to strengthen the capability of the existing rural and regional specialist workforce, aiming to deliver more consistent and appropriate chronic pain management and improve access to care for people living in rural and regional areas.
The project is funded through the Australian Government's Specialist Training Program (STP) as an STP support project.
The project is being delivered in phases through to March 2027.
Current work focuses on consultation and demand assessment, followed by co-design of the education framework and delivery model, model refinement and validation, and final reporting to the Australian Government.
The rural pain capability project is identified under priority area 15 of the ANZCA Regional and Rural Workforce Strategy 2026–2028, reflecting its alignment with broader college priorities to strengthen the regional and rural health workforce.
Priority area 15 outlines three potential implementation actions, including 15.2, "to define a scalable chronic pain training model for rural and regional settings that can be adapted across regions."
The rural pain capability project directly addresses this action.