Improving Chronic Pain Management in a Family Medicine Residency

Although the opioid epidemic continues to affect millions of Americans, many family physicians feel underprepared to perform chronic pain management (CPM) and treat opioid use disorder (OUD). To address this gap, we created organizational policy changes and implemented a didactic curriculum to help improve patient care, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT) into our residency. We investigated whether the educational program improved the comfort and ability of family physicians to prescribe opioids and utilize MAT.

Clinic policies and protocols were updated to align with the 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids. A didactic curriculum was created to improve resident and faculty comfort with CPM and introduce MAT. An online survey was completed pre- and postintervention between December 2019 and February 2020, utilizing paired sample t test and percentage effective (z test) to assess for change in provider comfort with opioid prescribing. Assessments were made using clinical metrics to monitor compliance with the new policy.

Following the interventions, providers reported improved comfort with CPM (P=.001) and perception of MAT (P<.0001). Within the clinical setting there was significant improvement in the number of CPM patients who had a pain management agreement on file (P<.001) and completed a urine drug screen within the past year (P<.001).

Provider comfort with CPM and OUD increased over the course of the intervention. We were also able to introduce MAT, adding a tool to the toolbox to help our residents and graduates treat OUD.