Can a brief online interdisciplinary program enhance the understanding of musculoskeletal pain amongst primary care staff? A prospective study

Abstract

Background: Primary care staff do not provide consistent education on musculoskeletal pain management to patients in accordance with the recommendations of clinical practice guidelines. We have developed a concise online learning program to bridge this gap. Objectives: To investigate (1) the effectiveness of 1-hour musculoskeletal pain neurophysiology education program conducted by a physiotherapist on primary care staff; (2) the correlation between demographic factors of staff and the interdisciplinary learning performances. Methods: We piloted a multicenter single-blind prospective study on sixty-four staff from the pharmacy department in eight public primary care clinics. Participants in the intervention group attended the 1-hour online program compared to a control group. The Neurophysiology of Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) to assess learning and the 10-point Likert scale program evaluation form to assess learning reaction of participants after the program were used. Results: The participants reacted positively to the online learning program. The intervention group significantly improved in their musculoskeletal pain knowledge by a greater mean NPQ score difference 2.39 (p < 0.001) compared with the control group. There were poor correlations between the demographic factors and their learning. Conclusion: The pilot study shows that primary care staff may still utilize a biomedical approach in managing musculoskeletal pain. The improvement in knowledge demonstrates that short online programs could be a valuable part of interdisciplinary education in primary care because it is easily accessible by healthcare professionals and can benefit other healthcare staff regardless of their background.