Background/Purpose: Pain is a near universal symptom of rheumatic diseases. Persistent pain can cause changes in the central and peripheral nervous system transforming pain from a symptom to a chronic illness. Shifting providers’ and patients’ thinking about “pain as a chronic illness” requires examples of conversations that can be shared between the patient and members of the health care team. The purpose of this project is to overview the development and testing of a novel on-line CME whose goal is to promote optimal patient care and provider satisfaction by ‘changing the conversation about pain’.

Methods: From January 2017 to January 2018, the Oregon Pain Management Commission deployed a team, consisting of two clinical pain leaders, a program coordinator (RN) and a producer of online training content, to revise the existing pain module mandated by the State for prescribing providers. An iterative Delphi-type process distilled multiple stakeholders’ needs from 13 professional and government organizations into the final modular product.

Results: On January 30, 2018 “Changing the Conversation About Pain” was launched. http://www.oregon.gov/oha/HPA/CSI-PMC/Pages/module.aspx By April 1, 1,453 persons had completed the 1.0 CME (476 nurses/nurse practitioners, 108 physicians, 105 dentist, 149 physical therapists, 127 occupational therapists, 79 pharmacists, 22 chiropractors, 13 psychologists and 374 other health professionals). On evaluation, 73% of participants were ‘highly committed” to change practice by using alternative communication methodologies with patients and families. Two open fields were available for feedback with comments including:

”Great Insight as to how pain is processed.”

“This is by far the most positive and thorough presentation on pain I have ever experienced.”

“Gave me language to use when talking with patients that are resistant to everything but pharmacological interventions.”

“This module is very informative and helpful for clinicians in understanding complex pain and the available treatment options for patients to benefit from.”

Conclusion: Extensive collaboration yielded an interprofessional CME that is thus far well received by a wide range of practicing professionals in addition to mandated providers. The CME is now being rolled out to law enforcement, patient navigators, certified nursing aides coaches, medical coders, health education specialists, and health administrators. These successes are furthering our goal of changing the conversation about pain to empower patients to take a self-management approach to their care.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/changing-the-conversation-about-pain-development-and-testing-of-an-interprofessional-pain-cme-applicable-for-rheumatologists-and-rheumatology-health-professionals/