Kyin Win1, Moti Lal1
1) Malaysia
The recognition and assessment of paediatric pain especially infants and younger children can be complex and challenging. Appropriate assessment is the cornerstone to guide pain management. Effective pain management can be multidimensional, requiring collaborative approaches that exceed the expertise of any one profession. Competency of pain management by health professionals at all levels and disciplines has been identified as a critical component. Competency of those must be initiated starting from undergraduate professional training to deliver effective quality care for children. Inter-professional education (IPE) delivers health professionals to provide patient-centred care as members of an interdisciplinary team (doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist and psychologist), with an emphasis on evidence-based practice and quality excellence.
The aims of this study is to ascertain the attitude of Senior Clerkship medical students (MS) from 2 Clinical Campuses of IMU, Malaysia towards prospect of IPE on “assessment and management of paediatric pain” for 4-core competencies and IPE through 16-questionnaire survey using a 5-point Likert scale.
In this study, 80 of 87 (92%) of MS gave informed consent. The majority of the respondents opined that improvement in quality of patient-centred care (96%), of greater accomplishment of responsibilities (94%), better communication skills (92%), and team work (95%) related to care of paediatric pain. Most of MS (83%) have a positive attitude about efficacy and potentials of IPE.
Our study shows MS have a positive attitude towards IPE in core competency of patient-centred care, roles and responsibilities, communication skills, and team work on assessment and management of paediatric pain. IPE benefits to cultivate teamwork right from undergraduate training through professional life and enables provision of more holistic care. The majority agree that IPE would improve their clinical skills and competencies on paediatric pain assessment and management, and decipher into delivery of better health-care to children.
