An Exploration of the Impact of Pain Education on GP Practice Staff

The aim of the research project is to quantify GP practice staffs' knowledge of chronic pain, their attitudes towards people with chronic pain and their management of a hypothetical patient with chronic pain, following a pain education session. The study also seeks to explore GP practice staffs' experience of receiving the pain education, their understanding of pain following the education and if they perceive the education session has impacted upon their daily practice.

Inappropriate, biomedical based views of chronic pain are commonly held by health care professionals (HCPs) and these in turn can result in patients receiving sub-optimal care out of step with current guidelines. It has been found that healthcare professionals management techniques did not reflect recognised treatment guidelines and this was associated with their biomedical view of chronic pain. Pain education/training sessions for health care staff may be an important step towards improving patient care for chronic pain. It has been found that there was improvement in nurses' knowledge after 2 different pain education sessions delivered to nurses however there was no long term follow up. Furthermore, no studies have targeted all members of staff at a GP surgery who will interact with the patient, and thus impact upon the care they receive. Pain Neuroscience education (PNE) is an approach to pain education which uses pain science information to shift the belief system of the receiver away from a biomedical understanding of pain to a more biopsychosocial understanding of pain. A number of studies have shown that this education can decrease biomedical attitudes in health care students. Thus, it may be that this education could produce similar positive effects in GP practice staff that could have positive implications for the care of patients with chronic pain. Thus this study aims to assess the impact on attitudes and beliefs of pain education upon staff at a GP surgery in Middlesbrough. Attitudes and beliefs will be assessed before and after the delivery of education. In addition participants will be invited to attend one of two focus groups to further discuss their findings or thoughts about the lecture.