Pain related undergraduate teaching in medical faculties in Finland

The present questionnaire study was conducted to examine how teachers in al l Finnish medical faculties have included pain teaching in their courses fo r undergraduate medical students. The study was planned to compare the exis ting education in Finland with the IASP curriculum on pain for medical scho ols. In 1991 and 1995 the questionnaire was sent to a total of 135 and 130 university leachers, respectively. The teachers were asked about the quanti ty and quality of their pain teaching. Teachers' altitudes on pain related teaching were also examined. A Finnish translation of the IASP curriculum w as provided, and university teachers were asked to evaluate it and compare it with their current teaching. The educational programs of all universitie s were also analyzed. After completion of these surveys, representatives of teachers responsible for teaching of pain, and of medical students from al l Finnish medical faculties were invited to a meeting to discuss methods fo r improving and developing education. Completed questionnaires were receive d from 107 university teachers (78%) in 1991 and from 74 (60%) in 1995. No printed curricula for pain education were found in any university and in al l universities pain teaching was provided in an inconsistent way. There wer e differences, yet statistically non-significant, between the faculties in the pain teaching. No major differences were observed between the two quest ionnaires. A serious lack of teaching in psychology of pain was a general f inding. University teachers were found to have positive attitudes towards d eveloping their teaching of pain. The IASP curriculum has not been fully fo llowed but was considered a valuable tool in planning the educational progr ams. The curriculum should be distributed directly to the governmental bodi es of the universities, since individual university teachers are not necess arily familiar with it. Local associations may have an important role in th is distribution as we have shown. This report shows the necessity of changi ng the attitudes of university teachers providing concrete teaching program s for pain. A multimedia package of pain containing references, video tapes and cd-discs produced by a workshop of IASP would certainly be welcome. (C ) 1999 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevi er Science B.V.