Throughout IASP’s history, we have been dedicated to supporting the improvement of pain education and practice in developing countries. This year, we are drawing special attention the disparity in pain research and care in these settings with our Global Year program, “Pain Management, Research and Education in Low- and Middle-Income Settings.” Although this global year is focused on spreading awareness of the challenges and opportunities in addressing pain in LMIC settings in 2025, IASP has always made ongoing efforts to incorporate researchers from these settings into the global space.
IASP awarded six researchers grants from the IASP Developing Countries Project: Initiative for Improving Pain Education, including Dr. Li Li at Zhujiang Hospital in Guangzhou, China. Li Li, Director of Clinical Nursing Education and Research at Zhujiang Hospital, has been a dedicated pain researcher passionate about disseminating pain knowledge through education and implemented evidence-based practices for the past 20 years.
Along with her team, Li Li has validated pain assessment scales for older Chinese adult, surgical, and critically ill patients, as well as validated these scales in neonatal populations. In her application for the grant, Li Li expressed her interest in working on a pain education program for nurses in neonatal intensive care in her region of Guangdong Province, China. Now, thanks to the IASP Developing Countries Project, her group has been able to implement this much-needed program.
Neonatal healthcare professionals have often been faced with newborns admitted with varying degrees of pain, often left untreated. This lack of treatment stems from multiple factors: inability to self-report pain, lack of self-care ability, and imperfect development of the liver drug enzyme system, to name a few.
In adults, many studies have shown pain education programs to help build clinical competency and bridge the knowledge gaps present in current pain management training. This led Li Li’s group to wonder: why hasn’t this been done for neonatal providers?
Thanks to funding from the Developing Countries Project, Li et al. were able to implement a multidimensional pain competency education program for neonatal healthcare professionals, integrating core concepts from pain management literature with interviews and expert group meetings.
As seen in results from the study, published in Nurse Education Today just over one month ago, the program reached its goal of improving pain management knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and behaviors of neonatal healthcare professionals. The program also helped establish standardized neonatal pain assessment and management protocols, now being used throughout the neonatology department at the participating hospital.
Results from studies like these serve to reinforce IASP’s mission to advocate for greater funding for high-quality research addressing topics like Dr. Li Li’s, filling important research gaps and improving health professional education on pain care.
View their Abstract below and be sure to check out the entire publication here.
Chen J, Xie M, Lin S, et al. Implementation of a multidimensional pain competency education program for neonatal healthcare professionals to translate pain knowledge into clinical practice: A mixed methods study. Nurse Educ Today. 2025;152:106767. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2025.106767
Abstract:
Background: Undertreatment of neonatal pain is often attributed to inadequate healthcare professional education. Determining strategies to effectively improve clinical pain knowledge to promote the skills and practices of neonatal healthcare professionals is imperative.
Objectives: To develop a multidimensional pain competency education program and to evaluate its effect on neonatal healthcare professionals’ pain management knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, behaviors, as well as on neonatology department’s pain management practice.
Design: A mixed-methods design.
Participants: A total of 110 neonatal healthcare professionals (24 physicians, 86 nurses) attended the education program, and 44 (8 physicians, 36 nurses) completed the follow-up survey.
Methods: A multidimensional pain competency education program was developed and implemented as a two-day training course, followed by three-month online support comprising two thematic workshops and ongoing practice-based support. Followed Kirkpatrick’s model, the training effects were evaluated using quantitative and qualitative data collected at baseline (T1), after the two-day training course (T2), and after completing the education program (T3).
Results: Neonatal healthcare professionals rated their education program satisfaction at 2.75 out of 3, indicating positive reaction-level evaluation in Kirkpatrick’s model. At the learning level, their scores in pain management knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy were significantly higher at both T2 and T3 compared to baseline (T1) (P < 0.05). At behavior level, significantly more participants used topical analgesics and non-pharmacological interventions to prevent and relieve pain at T3 compared to those at T1 (P < 0.05). At results level, a significantly higher number of key liaison neonatology departments have used or plan to use a neonatal pain assessment scale, have established or plan to establish a protocol for neonatal procedural pain assessment and management (P < 0.05). Two themes (Gain from learning and Training feedback) and eight sub-themes were identified from reflection writing about their experience of this education program.
Conclusion: The multidimensional pain competency education program for neonatal healthcare professionals can improve the level of pain management knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and behaviors of neonatal healthcare professionals, and promote the change of pain management practice in the neonatology department.