Interprofessional education to improve pain management.

Pain is a prevalent problem in community care and there is evidence that knowledge and understanding of pain management can be lacking among health professionals, leading to under-treatment. This mini-review aimed to assess the effectiveness of interprofessional education on health professionals' pain documentation and on the pain intensity reported by patients. A search of key databases identified two randomized controlled trials and two quasi-experimental studies. Two studies assessed change in pain documentation following interprofessional education; one revealed a statistically significant improvement and another indicated 29% increase in documentation of pain assessments. Two studies demonstrated no significant changes in patient outcomes, while the other revealed significant improvements. However, integration of the results was not possible because of the various methods of measurement used by the different researchers. Although broadly supportive of interprofessional education, the evidence is not helpful in determining the best way of improving pain management in the community.