Charting medical students’ attitudes and beliefs towards people with chronic pain as they progress through their undergraduate programme: an observational study

Mankelow, J., Ryan, C. G., Morris, H. T. , Lauchlan, D., Seenan, C., Taylor, P. and Martin, D. (2022) Charting medical students’ attitudes and beliefs towards people with chronic pain as they progress through their undergraduate programme: an observational study. Pain and Rehabilitation, 2022(52), pp. 26-33.

Abstract

Background: Healthcare professionals' (HCPs') attitudes towards pain influence their pain management. Attitudes about pain should be aligned with the evidence-base at the undergraduate stage of an HCP's career but pain education at undergraduate level is often lacking, and negative attitudes can pervade HCP practice. Previous studies investigating change in pain attitudes in undergraduate HCPs are cross-sectional in nature and frequently report minimal change in pain attitudes. Objectives: To investigate medical students' attitudes and beliefs towards people with chronic pain over the course of their Scottish undergraduate programme. Design: Five year observational study. Setting: A Scottish university medical school. Participants: Medical students were recruited in first year and followed up to their final year (year one n=205/244, year two n=190/245, year three n=132/279, year four n=110/262, year four n=159/260) for five years. Outcome Measure: The Health Care Providers' Pain and Impairment Relationship Scale (HC-PAIRS with scores ranging from 15-105) was completed annually. Results: A two-way ANOVA found that attitudes and beliefs improved significantly (p<0.01) from first to final year (10.0 10.0). Medics showed a gradual reduction in scores (signifying improved attitudes) annually. Conclusions: This is the first known published study to chart changes in the same cohort of medical students' attitudes and beliefs towards people with chronic pain over time. Changes in attitudes improved steadily over the five year medical degree course. Future work should explore which aspects of degree courses, if any, impact upon attitudes and beliefs towards people with chronic pain so that courses can be enhanced accordingly.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Morris, Dr Hayley
• Authors: Mankelow, J., Ryan, C. G., Morris, H. T., Lauchlan, D., Seenan, C., Taylor, P., and Martin, D.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cancer Sciences
• Journal Name: Pain and Rehabilitation
• Publisher: Physiotherapy Pain Association
• ISSN: 2051-0047
• ISSN (Online): 2051-0055
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © the authors 2022
• First Published: First published in Pain and Rehabilitation 2022(52):26-33
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license