Educational role of cancer pain rounds

Lack of appropriate physician education is one of several reasons for the recognized deficits in cancer pain management. This article describes the educational role of a weekly meeting, "Cancer Pain Rounds," attended by a multidisciplinary team of health professionals skilled in cancer pain management and student physicians caring for inpatients with cancer. Educational benefits occur in three spheres including factual information concerning assessment, treatment, and attitude issues, legitimization of the cancer pain problem, and role modeling. This type of educational experience will hopefully improve cancer pain management.