593: Interdisciplinary Pain Management Simulation: Exploring Learner Roles and Learning Outcomes?

Topic: Education, Societal Impact, and Others
Subtopic: Education

Background and Aims: Pain education for entry-level healthcare providers is deficient, despite pain being one of the most common reasons people seek medical care. The best practice treatment for complex chronic pain conditions involves interprofessional care. Healthcare simulation can provide an authentic, structured method for teaching interdisciplinary pain care and may offer a scalable strategy to improve future providers' preparedness to manage pain. The purpose of this study is to determine whether an IPE event using an interdisciplinary team approach to pain management affects interprofessional learning outcomes, regardless of learners' roles (participant vs. observer) in the simulation.

Methods: Students from five prelicensure healthcare programs participated in an IPE event that involved prework, prebriefing on the interdisciplinary setting and patient scenario, simulated patient (SP) encounters conducted individually or in co-evaluations across professions, a collaborative care conference session, a care conference with the SP, and debriefing. Not every student interacted directly with the standardized patient; those who did not interact directly with the SP provided observation and contributed to team discussions and decision-making. All students completed the ICCAS, reflective questions, and post-event evaluation after debriefing. The ICCAS is a validated measure for self-assessment of change in interprofessional collaboration-related competencies.

Results: A total of 82 participants completed the event, debriefing, ICCAS, and post-event evaluation (participants: n=41; observers: n=41). ICCAS scores improved significantly from pre- to post-event across all competency items, demonstrating a main effect of time. There was no Time × Group interaction, and no between group differences, indicating learners rated improvements similarly, whether they participated directly with the SP or observed the interactions. Qualitative comments and feedback were positive, noting improved clarity of professional roles, stronger appreciation for team-based decision-making, and improved confidence in communicating within an interdisciplinary pain-management context.

Conclusions: The event’s structure, which combined prework, profession-specific SP encounters, collaborative care planning, a team care conference, and debriefing, led to meaningful gains in interprofessional role clarity, communication, and teamwork within an interdisciplinary pain clinic. Improvements occurred across professions, with a significant main effect of time on ICCAS outcomes and no differences between students who directly participated with SPs compared to those who observed. Learner feedback further reinforced the value of the experience, highlighting improved understanding of team member responsibilities and strong support for using similar IPE approaches to prepare future providers for complex pain management.

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Presenting Author: John Kiesel
Submitting Author: John Kiesel

Senior Author: John Kiesel

IASP 2026 Global Year theme of Neuropathic Pain: No

• Chelsea Elwood - Indiana State University
• Heather Adams - Indiana State University
• Brandi Andreae - Indiana State University
• JoEllen Henson - Indiana State University
• Doug Stevens - Indiana State University
• Steven McCaw - Indiana State University
• Kailee Burdick - Rural Health Innovation Collaborative
• Laura Livingston - Rural Health Innovation Collaborative