The primary objective of this Cancer Pain Management Course is to expand dissemination of pain management knowledge for nursing care of cancer patients and their families. This objective will be implemented by providing two workshops conducted by nationally recognized experts in the area of pain management and presented to competitively selected nurse educators from undergraduate nursing programs. The first course for 40 participants will target California undergraduate nursing programs. The 40 participants in the second course will be drawn from undergraduate nursing programs throughout the country.
Specific aims of the course are to establish a place for knowledge of cancer pain management in the curricula of undergraduate nursing schools, build a network of pain management experts among nursing faculty leaders, communicate state-of-the-art information about cancer pain management to course participants, build positive attitudes toward pain management, and provide follow up to course participants. Extensive evaluation includes pre and post testing of knowledge and attitudes about pain in faculty and students, clinical pain management via chart audits, and revisions in undergraduate nursing curricula. Dissemination of the educational activities will be accomplished through wide distribution of the workshop results via publications and presentations, design and distribution of a Nurse Educator's Manual for integrating cancer pain management content into undergraduate nursing programs, and dissemination of materials through the professional organizations.
