Investigation of continuing education requirements on the diagnosis and management of pain in non-anesthetic residents

Objective To investigate the current status and training requirements of pain medicine among non-anesthetic residents rotating in the Department of Anesthesiology at a tertiary hospital in Beijing. Methods A self-designed questionnaire of “pain medicine education requirements of rotating residents” was administered to each resident on their first day of rotation, and voluntary responses were collected. Results A total of 108 questionnaires were collected (87.1% response rate), comprising 45 from surgical residents, 42 from internal medicine residents, and 21 from emergency and intensive care residents. The results showed that surgical residents encountered a higher prevalence of surgery-related pain as compared to internal medicine residents or emergency and intensive care residents(P＜0.001). Internal medicine residents experienced a greater incidence of inflammatory pain than surgical residents(P＜0.05) or emergency and intensive care residents(P＜0.01). All residents expressed continuing education requirements on pain management. Regarding training modalities, surgical residents favored medical course (86.7%); internal medicine residents preferred outpatient clinic rotation (88.1%); and emergency and intensive care residents preferred interventional treatment rotations (90.5%). Conclusions There are a wide need for continuing medical education on pain management. The training should be tailored diversely based on the specific clinical needs of each department to improve the overall quality of continuing medical education and accelerate the development of integrative pain management.