Educational Innovations Leveraging Technology for Nurse Practitioner Students to Learn Pain Management

Description Innovative teaching modalities in curricular content and delivery of pain education for NP students are important given that at least 20% of adults suffer from chronic pain in the United States. In addition, at least 2 in 3 NPs perceive having lack of confidence and competence in managing patients with pain. Transforming pain education for NP students is necessary especially with advancing technology in this digital era. Academic programs can greatly assist in preparing NPs into pain practice to improve pain care among our patients. Aim Currently, there is no known academic program that provides pain management specialization for Nurse Practitioners (NPs) despite pain affecting at least 1 in 5 adults. The focus on pain management can be sparse (i.e. less than 5 hours) in a comprehensive, population-based NP curriculum. The necessary knowledge and skills for NP students going into pain management will have to be learned during employment, hoping that there will be enough training opportunities before being immersed in pain care. The purpose of this presentation is to provide innovative examples for academic programs as to how they can maximize pain management knowledge and skills by leveraging technology so that learning can be accessible before students go out in pain practice. Methods With advancing technology, there are increasingly, various approaches to deliver quality education toward increasing pain management knowledge and skills among NP students to prepare them for clinical practice. Discussion Digital health includes a broad scope of technological applications. Examples include personalized medicine, telehealth, information technology, wearable devices, or mobile health. These are being implemented in clinical practice in growing trends. In academic programs for NP students, various innovative approaches can help maximize pain management knowledge and skills. These include virtual case simulations (e.g., advanced history taking and screening; pain-geared physical examination; diagnosing; appropriate use of multimodal, pharmacologic/non-pharmacologic interventions, multiple procedures including various injections or interventional modalities; managing difficult patient situations, opioid use, opioid use disorder); use of standardized patients; modeling through audio-video recording of common injection procedures; use of simulation mannequins, task trainers, and 3-D anatomical models; or conducting collaborative simulations with pain specialists, among others. Conclusions Recent reports continue to indicate that pain management education for NPs remain deficient with 67% who describe feeling unprepared. This provides an important opportunity to improve pain preparation for NP students in academic programs. Innovative teaching modalities in curricular content and delivery of pain education for NP students are important given that at least 20% of adults suffer from chronic pain in the United States. In addition, at least 2 in 3 NPs perceive having lack of confidence and competence in managing patients with pain. Transforming pain education for NP students is necessary especially with advancing technology in this digital era. Academic programs can greatly assist in preparing NPs into pain practice to improve pain care among our patients. Currently, there is no known academic program that provides pain management specialization for Nurse Practitioners (NPs) despite pain affecting at least 1 in 5 adults. The focus on pain management can be sparse (i.e. less than 5 hours) in a comprehensive, population-based NP curriculum. The necessary knowledge and skills for NP students going into pain management will have to be learned during employment, hoping that there will be enough training opportunities before being immersed in pain care. The purpose of this presentation is to provide innovative examples for academic programs as to how they can maximize pain management knowledge and skills by leveraging technology so that learning can be accessible before students go out in pain practice. With advancing technology, there are increasingly, various approaches to deliver quality education toward increasing pain management knowledge and skills among NP students to prepare them for clinical practice. Digital health includes a broad scope of technological applications. Examples include personalized medicine, telehealth, information technology, wearable devices, or mobile health. These are being implemented in clinical practice in growing trends. In academic programs for NP students, various innovative approaches can help maximize pain management knowledge and skills. These include virtual case simulations (e.g., advanced history taking and screening; pain-geared physical examination; diagnosing; appropriate use of multimodal, pharmacologic/non-pharmacologic interventions, multiple procedures including various injections or interventional modalities; managing difficult patient situations, opioid use, opioid use disorder); use of standardized patients; modeling through audio-video recording of common injection procedures; use of simulation mannequins, task trainers, and 3-D anatomical models; or conducting collaborative simulations with pain specialists, among others. Recent reports continue to indicate that pain management education for NPs remain deficient with 67% who describe feeling unprepared. This provides an important opportunity to improve pain preparation for NP students in academic programs.