SEA UK Project Grant
The successful applicant for the SEA UK Project Grant was:
Principal Applicant
Dr Helen Laycock
Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellow and Honorary Anaesthetic Registrar, Imperial College, London
Title
Development and validation of an instrument to assess the quality of the pain education environment for anaesthetic trainees.
Amount
£1,783
Scientific Abstract
Pain in hospitalised patients' is common. Causes are multifactorial, and probably include inexperience in pain management and shortfalls in relevant knowledge amongst junior doctors.
Pain management is integral to the Anaesthetist's role. A knowledge gap therefore exists between doctors commencing training and the specialist, practicing independently. This warrants a standardised pain education approach, however throughout the UK pain training varies, with a proportion occurring "on the job". Reduced working hours may have impacted on this training and therefore a more formal approach to address education is proposed.
Effective pain education starts not with designing an intervention, but through ensuring the quality of the learning environment within which learning takes place. This learning environment includes the physical environment, learner support and opportunities for autonomy, together forming the basis for effective education. Evaluating quality requires a validated assessment tool. Whilst specific tools exist for certain learning environments, such as operating theatres, none relate to pain education and the multiple locations where this learning occurs.
This study aims to employ well-established methodology in development and statistical validation, to create an effective quality assessment tool, which in the future may be useful in comparing learning interventions to ensure effective pain education occurs.
