Effective Chronic Pain Management and Responsible Opioid Prescribing: Aligning a Resident Workshop to a Protocol for Improved Outcomes

INTRODUCTION: Effective chronic pain management is a core competency of internal medicine. Opioid use in the United States, both therapeutic and nonmedical in origin, has dramatically increased, as has the number of deaths due to opioid overdose. Despite this, formal training in pain management and responsible opioid prescribing is lacking for internal medicine residents. METHODS: Our educational workshop for PGY 1-PGY 3 internal medicine residents was designed to provide a functional knowledge base and improve motivation to change behaviors in chronic pain management and responsible opioid prescribing. A secondary aim was to align our intervention with our new clinic opioid-prescribing protocol with the goal of increasing the adoption of opioid risk-reduction strategies in our resident clinic, specifically, use of urine drug screening (UDS). We collected data using pre- and postsession knowledge and motivation to change questionnaires as well as pre- and postintervention data regarding UDS in our ambulatory clinic. RESULTS: Sixty-three residents participated in a workshop session. Based on pre- to posttest results, medical knowledge of principles of responsible opioid prescribing increased overall (p = .01). Most residents reported high motivation to change behaviors around management of chronic pain and opioid prescribing. There was also a significant postintervention ordering of UDS in patients on long-term opioid therapy. DISCUSSION: Our workshop resulted in a short-term improvement in knowledge of principles of responsible opioid prescribing, a significant motivation to change behaviors, and increased adoption of opioid risk-reduction strategies in our resident clinic.