Update: Health Practitioner Education Strategy

Author: Associate Professor Meredith Craigie, Clinical Lead – Pain management health practitioner education strategy and Painaustralia Board Member

Project update: Pain management health practitioner education strategy

The Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists is leading a project to develop a pain management education strategy for Australian health practitioners. The project is funded by the federal Department of Health to support Goal Three of the National Strategic Action Plan for Pain Management (p. 16).

The completed strategy will utilise current evidence-based information to guide and promote pain management education, at all levels, across health practitioner disciplines. It will be centred around the needs of health practitioners as learners and the needs of people accessing pain care, as well as promote a whole person approach to pain management.

Work on the project began in July 2020 and is progressing well. To date, the project team have completed a literature and environmental scan, creating a picture of the current health practitioner pain management education environment. We have also appointed a multi-disciplinary governance advisory group, as well as drafted a strategy framework. A broad stakeholder consultation process – with consumer voices at the centre – will take place throughout 2021.