Interprofessional education: A facilitator to enhance pain management?

Abstract

Pain as a multidimensional phenomenon needs to be managed or mitigated interprofessionally. This review aimed to assess the efficiency of interprofessional education on the pain documentation of professionals and on the pain intensity reported by patients. Based upon a systematic search, two randomized controlled trails and two quasi-experimental studies were retrieved. An enhancement in pain documentation following interprofessional education was revealed. Two studies demonstrated no significant changes in patient outcomes, while the other revealed significant improvements. The integration of the results was not feasible due to the various methods of measurement employed in the different studies. More rigorous investigations particularly with a holistic approach are recommended.

Keywords:

• Pain
• interprofessional education
• systematic review