Pedia Pain Focus: Interdisciplinary Pain Education is Necessary to Change the Face of Pediatric Pain Management

Interdisciplinary Pain Education is Necessary to Change the Face of Pediatric Pain Management

Aug 24, 2020

In this episode, Dr Rachel Zoffness, PhD discusses the role of scientifically supported, non-stigmatizing and interdisciplinary education in advancing the quality of pediatric pain medicine, for HCPs and patients.

Dr. Zoffness is a health and pain psychologist on faculty at UCSF School of Medicine, runs educational program for the trainees at UCSF and a pain workshop for HCPs. She’s is the author of the Chronic Pain & Illness Workbook for Teens and has a successful clinical practice in pediatric pain medicine. She's a self proclaimed "nerd" with a passion for science and education, who wanted to live at the intersection of medicine and psychology, patient care and education. She also brings a unique perspective due to her personal experience with chronic pain.

Takeaways in This Episode

Her controversial approach to treating her patient’s pain helping him get from being bedridden to the captaincy of his ultimate frisbee team.
Current gaps in pediatric pain management and how these contribute to the mismanagement of children's pain.
Why “training the trainer” is a imperative and how our current training system stacks up in that regard.
The bio-psychosocial framework of pediatric pain.
Where she (and other pediatric pain clinicians) experience resistance (Hint: It's more widespread than you think!)
Barriers to adequate education in pain medicine.
Pain as a ubiquitous experience and what YOU can do to eliminate the barriers to appropriate education.
How you can give back the power and hope that pain takes away from your patients and families.
How to create multidisciplinary teams, and what to do if you don’t have a multidisciplinary pain management team.
What you can do to remove the stigma from referral to pain psychology.
How to navigate the lack of time and still give your patients and families the needed education in addition to the treatment plans.
A kid-friendly 3 minute, "pain dial" metaphor explanation of pain for any child or family that you can adopt and implement right away.
Addressing the question "why do I need to see a psychologist if I’m feeling the pain in my body?".
What you can do to pivot and innovate during the COVID19 pandemic.