Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

Source Publication

Canadian Journal of Pain

Source ISSN

2474-0527

Abstract

Background

National strategies from North America call for substantive improvements in entry-level pain management education to help reduce the burden of chronic pain. Past work has generated a valuable set of interprofessional pain management competencies to guide the education of future health professionals. However, there has been very limited work that has explored the development of such competencies for individual professions in different regions. Developing profession-specific competencies tailored to the local context is a necessary first step to integrate them within local regulatory systems. Our group is working toward this goal within the context of entry-level physiotherapy (PT) programs across Canada.

Aims

This study aimed to create a consensus-based competency profile for pain management, specific to the Canadian PT context.

Methods

A modified Delphi design was used to achieve consensus across Canadian university-based and clinical pain educators.

Results

Representatives from 14 entry-level PT programs (93% of Canadian programs) and six clinical educators were recruited. After two rounds, a total of 15 competencies reached the predetermined endorsement threshold (75%). Most participants (85%) reported being “very satisfied” with the process.

Conclusions

This process achieved consensus on a novel pain management competency profile specific to the Canadian PT context. The resulting profile delineates the necessary abilities required by physiotherapists to manage pain upon entry to practice. Participants were very satisfied with the process. This study also contributes to the emerging literature on integrated research in pain management by profiling research methodology that can be used to inform related work in other health professions and regions.

Comments

Published version. Canadian Journal of Pain, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2022): 1-11. DOI. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Used with permission.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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