| dc.description.abstract | Many healthcare providers report not feeling confident when prescribing opioids, which represents an educational gap in the clinical setting that must be addressed to improve patient care and outcomes (Dowell, Haegerich, & Chou, 2016b). Healthcare providers attribute this lack of confidence in opioid prescribing to insufficient training on the tools provided to them to ensure safe prescribing habits. Thus, healthcare providers do not feel confident in managing patients’ chronic pain. A healthcare provider’s time spent with their patient is limited and therefore, needs to be utilized efficiently. In order to achieve effective time management, healthcare providers need to be experts on chronic pain management and self-assured with their practice in relation to opioids.
This practice improvement project focused on increasing healthcare providers’ knowledge and confidence when prescribing opioids for chronic pain and managing chronic pain. An educational intervention with health professionals working in federally qualified health centers in North Dakota was implemented via Skype. The intervention allowed healthcare providers to be up-to-date on the most recent evidence-based literature and guidelines regarding this topic. Throughout this practice improvement project, healthcare providers were educated on the latest Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, provided resources for their clinical practice, and given an opportunity to evaluate their own knowledge and confidence.
The implementation of the practice improvement project was comprised of an educational session. To assess the participants’ knowledge, a pre-test was provided prior to the educational session and a post-test was given following the educational session. Furthermore, a self-confidence evaluation survey was administered, which utilized a Likert scale. Lastly, the clinic’s policies and pain agreements related to pain and opioids were reviewed and discussed.
The results of the project indicated an overall increase in the participants’ knowledge and self-confidence. In addition, the project promoted awareness of the clinic’s current pain agreement and the likelihood of a future implementation of a policy regarding chronic pain management. The educational session was beneficial in promoting the use of evidence-based research and guidelines in the primary care setting. | en_US |
