Pain knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of doctor of physical therapy students: changes across the curriculum and the role of an elective pain science course

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Entry-level physical therapist education on pain has been described as lacking. Calls have been made to include pain science courses to address this knowledge gap.

Methods: Physical therapist students’ pain knowledge and attitudes were measured using the revised Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire (rNPQ) and Pain Attitudes and Beliefs Scale for Physical Therapists (PABS-PT), respectively. Univariate ANOVAs, with post hoc pairwise comparison and effect sizes, were used to measure these aspects over time.

Results: Pain knowledge and clinician beliefs were significantly different (p < 0.001) at various curricular timepoints. rNPQ scores increased from 1^st to 2^nd year (effect size: 1.10), remained similar between years 2 and 3, and improved following the pain course (effect size: 1.25). Biomedical beliefs were similar during years 1, 2 and 3, and declined following the pain course (effect size: 1.56). Conversely, psychosocial belief scores increased from 1^st to 2^nd year (effect size: 0.82), remained similar between years 2 and 3, and increased following the pain course (effect size: 1.08).

Discussion/Conclusions: Physical therapist education, without a dedicated pain science course, may be insufficiently preparing students to treat patients in pain. Educators should consider adopting a dedicated pain science course or substantially bolstering embedded curricular pain content to promote best practice in pain treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Pain science
• physical therapist education
• pain beliefs and attitudes
• neurophysiology of pain questionnaire
• curriculum

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interest related to the details included in this manuscript.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at East Tennessee State University.

Additional information

Funding

This study was internally funded.

Notes on contributors

Craig A. Wassinger

Craig Wassinger is an Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at East Tennessee State University where he teaches in musculoskeletal, pain science, and research related coursework. He is also the research director and a faculty member in the orthopaedic residency and manual therapy fellowship programs at ETSU. Craig has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and presentations in topics such as shoulder injuries, musculoskeletal pain, and physical therapist education.