This page provides links to pain education resources.
If you have a pain resource that you would like us to host please send information to [email protected]
Curricula and qualifications
BPS Pre-registration Core Curricula for Health Care Professionals
Members of the British Pain Society led by Professor Nick Allcock created a core curriculum for all healthcare professionals working with people who experience pain. Following the publication of the IASP Interprofessional Core Curriculum a second working group led by Dr Sailesh Mishra amended the focus of the original work. Leaving the valuable core curriculum intact they added chapters about approaches to pain education and case studies accompanied by theoretical rationale that demonstrate how the core curriculum can be operationalised in higher education or practice settings.
IASP working groups from all professions have created and updated professional specific as well as interprofessional curricula. These curricula inform all those involved in pain education about the minimum expectations for course content and are available to non-members of IASP as well as members.
EFIC Pain Curricula and Diploma
EFIC offer diploma level qualifications in pain for medics and physiotherapists. They are working on accediting diplomas for other professions. Each of the professions have a specific curriculum to follow prior to sitting examinations to gain the diploma.
RCN Pain Knowledge and Skills Framework
This framework was created to help employers writing job descriptions and conducting performance reviews, and for employees needing to evidence their competence and consider their developmental needs. It is an essential document for nurses.
Educational resources
IASP Pain Education Resource Centre
IASP created this resource centre in 2019. It is available to members free of charge. It hosts a lbrary of video lectures from experts often filmed in conference settings. You can earn CME points by undertaking a survey following the video. There is a fee for this (currently $30).
EFIC Education Platform
This site, like the IASP resource centre, provides videos of conference presentations of a wide variety of pain topics.
BPS youtube channel
If you missed our recent webinars we would like to inform you that the recordings are available via the BPS youtube channel. View the recordings here.
Essential Pain Management (EPM)
EPM is an educational tool endorsed by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and recommended by the Faculty of Pain Medicine as a framework for teaching medical students. Train the trainer courses have now prepared a number of different health professions to use this tool in the education of medics, nurses, psychologists and allied health professionals students and qualified staff. EPM UK centres on RAT - Recognise, Assess, and Treat. EPM UK comes with a trainers handbook and aims to provide a structured, reproducible and evidence based training programme. The course comprises short lectures, small group discussions and case based discussions.
E-pain
E-pain is from e-Learning for Healthcare and is available to anyone who works in the NHS and healthcare students. The programme was developed in partnership with the Faculty of Pain Medicine and the British Pain Society. There are twelve modules: introduction to pain management; acute pain; pain as a long-term condition; treatments and therapies; pain conditions around the body; musculoskeletal; neuropathic pain; pain in children; pain in older people; special populations; cancer pain; and basic science.
Apps
There are a multitude of apps available for android and apple devices. As a group we are unable to endorse specific apps but would welcome recommendations from health professional members of the British Pain Society. If you would like to recommend an app for this resource page please email [email protected] with a description of the app, who is is designed for, and information about your experience of its use with members of the public of health professionals learning about pain.