Provider Education to Increase Knowledge of Chronic Pain Assessment in a Pain Clinic: A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract Suboptimal pain management is a significant problem, even in specialized settings including pain clinics. To improve provider knowledge of effective pain management techniques for patients, education has been highlighted in the literature as a means to enhance provider understanding of the topic and to improve patient care. This quality improvement project sought to implement a provider education program in a pain management clinic to help enhance provider knowledge of effective pain management practices. Using a sample of 10 medical providers (medical students and advanced practice registered nurses) from a specialty pain clinic operating in South Florida, a pre-/post-intervention design was employed to measure provider knowledge before and following an educational program. The results of this project indicated that mean knowledge scores from providers increased from a pre-intervention mean of 4.6 to a post-intervention mean of 9.0. This result was found to be statistically significant at p = 0.0001, suggesting that the educational program was effective for improving provider knowledge. The implications of these findings are discussed with recommendations for expanding research on the topic and for expanding the program to further enhance provider knowledge of the topic