Faculty Perspectives of Teaching Pain Management to Nursing Students

BackgroundPain management education is threaded through prelicensure nursing education. However, the perspectives of faculty teaching pain assessment and management within the context of the opioid crisis are not addressed in the literature. Pain assessment and management is a complex process requiring critical thinking and clinical reasoning. The current opioid crisis has brought new challenges to health care professionals who provide pain management, and this is a concern for nurses.AimsThe purpose of the study was to discover the perspectives of nursing faculty on teaching pain management content in prelicensure nursing programs.DesignFollowing a systematic review to determine gaps in knowledge, a qualitative study was conducted using nursing faculty as participants.ParticipantsThe sample consisted of 17 faculty members from 15 nursing programs on the East Coast.MethodsThe qualitative descriptive approach allowed for a rich, detailed exploration of faculty perspectives. Qualitative content analysis of the participant narratives indicated the need to approach pain management education from a perspective of relieving suffering and preventing harm to patients rather than focusing on the opioid crisis.ResultsParticipants perceived the opioid crisis as distinct from the legitimate use of pain medication. The findings indicate that nursing curricula includes only the basics of pain management.ConclusionsParticipants’ teaching practice was based on experiential learning rather than formal education and often was heavily influenced by a seminal event in their own nursing practice. The findings support the need to improve the education of undergraduate nursing students about pain management in the context of the current opioid crisis.