Keela Herr, PhD, RN, AGST, FAAN, professor at the University of Iowa College of Nursing, recently helped develop and lead an intensive two-day summit at UC Davis Health System with 30 other pain and education experts from throughout North America.

The Expert Summit for Interprofessional Consensus on Pain Management Competencies included  leaders from several health-related disciplines—such as dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, psychology, social work and veterinary medicine—as well as educational experts and researchers. It was created to develop competencies for pain management education for new clinicians across health professions.

“As health care systems consider enhancing interdisciplinary models of care, the development of interprofessional pain competencies that can guide curriculum development will be a valuable resource,” said Dr. Herr, member of the executive steering committee of the summit.

The summit was part of the Interprofessional Pain Management Competency Program, a project intended to develop pain management core competencies and drive curriculum reform related to pain management. The program is led by Scott Fishman, professor and chief of pain medicine and vice chair of the department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and Heather Young, associate vice chancellor for nursing at UC Davis and founding dean at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis.

“The current state of pain management competencies and content in schools of medicine and nursing, as well as other health professions, is inadequate,” said Fishman. “The creation and distribution of core competencies in pain management that apply across professions can be used as a foundational step in improving the culture and content of care for adults and children with acute, chronic or end-of-life pain.”

A 2011 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report revealed the need for improved pain education for health professionals due to increasing numbers of Americans coping with chronic pain as well as skyrocketing costs. According to the IOM, an estimated 100 million American adults—more than the total affected by heart diseases, cancer and diabetes combined—suffer from chronic pain. Pain costs the nation up to $600 billion annually in medical treatment and lost productivity.

Prior to the summit, Dr. Herr worked with Fishman and Young as part of a seven-member executive committee to examine the current state of pain education for early-stage health professional students through literature and curricula review and expert interviews. The result of that work was presented to the summit participants who worked over the two days to reach consensus on a framework for pain management competencies. They agreed the core competencies would cover four key areas:

• Multidimensional nature of pain
• Assessment and measurement
• Management of pain
• Clinical conditions: interprofessional, patient-centered care in context

Results from the summit will be summarized and published in an upcoming journal article; a full report will be available within six months. Other means of dissemination, such as additional peer-reviewed publications, presentations at professional conferences and distribution to academic and professional organizations are also planned to encourage endorsement and application of the competencies in various health education programs throughout the world.

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