P-009 - (Poster #9) Implementing a Brief, Culturally-Responsive Chronic Pain Management Curriculum

Latine and Black patients from underserved communities often face significant disparities in the management of chronic pain compared to those from affluent areas. These patients are also more likely to have their pain underestimated, receive inadequate analgesic medication, or be directed toward invasive treatments rather than holistic alternatives, such as acupuncture or pain specialists’ referrals. These inequities highlight the urgent need for culturally responsive care, which integrates patients’ cultural beliefs and values into their treatment, fostering trust and improving outcomes. Training primary care providers on this topic is imperative. Thus, this project set out to develop a pain management curriculum for urban primary care programs who care for this population. We assessed barriers, and change in knowledge, skills and attitudes among primary care residents through an anonymous survey that was administered before and after the lecture. By addressing these disparities in primary care training, this initiative aims to promote equitable and effective pain care for diverse communities.

Purpose/Objectives:

1. Create a curriculum of three 1-hour lectures, each focusing on the application and fundamentals of cultural responsiveness in chronic pain management.

2. Deliver each lecture during designated blocked-out learning periods for the residents, utilizing either a combination of or one of the following formats— in-person or virtual—as appropriate.

3. Assess and identify key qualities within a group of family medicine residency learners, evaluating their knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to the management of chronic pain in primary care settings.

4. Examine the impact of a culturally-responsive curriculum on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of family medicine residents in the management of chronic pain.

5. Assess the effectiveness of the culturally-responsive curriculum of the family medicine residents when managing chronic pain in Latino and Black populations.

Methods:

1. Created a culturally responsive chronic pain curriculum with three 1-hour lectures based on research into resident teaching for culturally sensitive patients, psychosocial approaches, and studies on target populations’ pain experiences, cultural practices, treatment disparities, and chronic pain impact, including modern and alternative management strategies.

2. Curriculum presentations targeted learners in Family Medicine residency programs who treat diverse populations, specifically those identified as Latine and Black.

3. The first of three lectures has been delivered at two different programs which addressed the knowledge component of the culturally responsive chronic pain curriculum. There are now two upcoming lectures focused on skills and attitudes.

4. Data was collected via pre- and post-surveys after the first lecture and analyzed using Google Response Summaries and Excel; the two remaining lectures will be assessed the same way.

5. Participation was voluntary. Research was IRB exempt.

Results:

• Cultural Responsiveness: Learners showed a 15% increase in recognizing the limitations of evidence based medicine (EBM) in addressing cultural differences in pain perception and expression after the curriculum.
  
  


• Bias Awareness: Learners adopted more individualized bias-aware strategies in chronic pain management, preferring reflective approaches over uniform guidelines. There was also a 31.6% decrease in viewing EBM as universally applicable for addressing biases in chronic pain care for diverse patient populations.
  
  


• Most participants reported either feeling unsure or cautious about seeing patients with chronic pain.
  
  


• Over half of respondents indicated insufficient chronic pain management training.
  
  


• 70.8% of respondents reported insurance as the biggest barrier encountered in referring patients with chronic pain to pain management.