Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Competency-Based Curricula in Pain Management Device Therapies

Bruce J. Bellande, PhD CCMEP FACME, bruce_bellande@dwahcg.com¹, Kathleen M. Cox, MA¹, John M. Huffman, MD², Cynthia S. Reese, MBA RN³, Maged Hamza, MD⁴, Suzanne Dawidowicz, MBA³, David Caraway, MD PhD⁵, Gail McGlothlen, MS RN-BC CNS⁶, (1) DWA Healthcare Communications Group, Carmel, Indiana, (2) American Society of Anesthesiologists, Silver Spring, Maryland, (3) Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, (4) VCU Spine Center, Richmond, Virginia, (5) Center for Pain Relief TriState, Huntington, West Virginia, (6) Napa Pain Institute, Napa, California

Introduction and Statement of the Problem: The lack of a systematic curriculum development process in use of medical devices for pain therapy results in courses that are often inefficient and duplicative, risking that target learners miss key information.[1] Although competency-based curricula have been identified as effective means of developing competence in clinical practice[2],the process of identifying competencies is often cumbersome[3]. A short-term, modified Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was tested to more efficiently validate and stratify clinical competencies identified from existing pain device course content to develop a competency-based curriculum in patient identification, surgical implantation and programming techniques, risk mitigation, and postoperative management of patients with implanted pain devices. Materials and Methods: Educational planners used evidence-based methodologies to derive competencies from existing content for neurostimulation and intrathecal drug delivery in the treatment of chronic pain. In three rounds of NGT, physician and midlevel panels reviewed the competencies to validate their accuracy, reliability, and relevance; whether core or therapy specific; for novice, intermediate-to-advanced, or master-level learners; and their sequence within the curriculum (preoperative, operative, postoperative, and postoperative with complications. Results: Panelists came to consensus, validating and delineating relevance, type, learner level, and sequencing for 248 competencies for physicians and 123 for midlevel providers, which will be further stratified by role in the team. The process took eight weeks. Conclusions: The NGT Method was successful in identifying competencies, learner levels, and prerequisites for use in developing a comprehensive, competency-based curriculum. References: 1)Kern D, Thomas P, Howard D, Bass E. Curriculum Development for Medical Education: A Six-Step Approach. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1998. 2)Frank JR, et al. Competency-based medical education: theory to practice. Medical Teacher 2010; 32:638-645. 3)Calhoun J, Davidson P, Sinioris M, Vincent E, and Griffith J. Toward an understanding of competency identification and assessment in health care management. Quality Management in Health Care, 2002, 11(1), 14–38.

Funding: Research paid for by Medtronic Neuromodulation Division