Toward consensus on pain-related content in the pre-registration, undergraduate physical therapy curriculum: a Delphi-study

ABSTRACT

Background

Access to pain education for healthcare professionals is an International Association for the Study of Pain's key recommendation to improve pain care. The content of preregistration and undergraduate physical therapy pain curricula, however, is highly variable.

Objective

This study aimed to develop a list, by consensus, of essential pain-related topics for the undergraduate physical therapy curriculum.

Methods

A modified Delphi study was conducted in four rounds, including a Delphi Panel (N = 22) consisting of in pain experienced lecturers of preregistration undergraduate physical therapy of Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, and five Validation Panels. Round 1: topics were provided by the Delphi Panel, postgraduate pain educators, and a literature search. Rounds 2–4: the Delphi Panel rated the topics and commented. All topics were analyzed in terms of importance and degree of consensus. Validation Panels rated the outcome of Round 2.

Results

The Delphi Panel rated 257, 146, and 90 topics in Rounds 2, 3, and 4, respectively. This resulted in 71 topics judged as “not important,” 97 as “important,” and 89 as “highly important.” In total, 63 topics were rated as “highly important” by the Delphi Panel and Validation Panels.

Conclusion

A list was developed and can serve as a foundation for the development of comprehensive physical therapy pain curricula.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical therapy curriculum
• pain curriculum
• education
• preregistration
• undergraduate

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants of the Delphi Panel representing the Universities of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands: Hogeschool van Amsterdam; Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen; Hanze Hogeschool Groningen; Hogeschool Zuyd Heerlen; Hogeschool Leiden; Hogeschool Rotterdam; Hogeschool Saxion Enschede; Hogeschool Utrecht; Thim Hogeschool of Physical Therapy; Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven; Avans Hogeschool Breda; and SOMT University of Physical Therapy Amersfoort. We thank all the participants of the Validation Panels: early career physical therapists; physical therapists; non-pain lecturers; postgraduate pain educators; EFIC; and IASP representatives. Finally, we thank A. Engers, S. Mooren-van der Meer, E. de Raaij, and H. Wittink for their help during the inception of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09593985.2022.2144562

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.