Cancer pain education: The use of a structured clinical instruction moduleto enhance learning among medical students

The Structured Clinical Instruction Module (SCIM) is an educational format developed for the teaching of clinical and interpersonal skills. The purpos e of this study was to develop and pilot-test a SCIM to enhance medical stu dents' learning and understanding about cancer Pain assessment and manageme nt. The Cancer Pain SCIM was presented to 34 third-year medical students. E ight instructors and six standardized patients (five cancer patients) parti cipated in the course. All participants evaluated the course using a five-p oint Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Students sel f-assessed their clinical skills before and after the course using a five-p oint scale (1 = not competent; 5 = very competent). Students agreed [mean ( S.D.)] very strongly that the SCIM was a valuable educational experience [4 .4 (0.56)] and that it was beneficial to use actual cancer patients in the SCIM [4.5 (0.63)]. Students believed their skills in the assessment and man agement of cancer pain significantly improved after the course. The SCIM is a valuable and novel instructional format to teach essential skills in the assessment and management of cancer pain to medical students. (C) U.S. Can cer Pain Relief Committee 2000.