Evaluation of physiologic pain knowledge by physiotherapy students

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain is a severe world health problem, making its management a challenge for health professionals. The study of pain has been superficially addressed during health professionals' qualification, reflecting in ineffective clinical practices. This study aimed at evaluating the level of neurophysiologic pain knowledge of physiotherapy students after using active teaching-learning strategies to address the subject. METHODS: This was an uncontrolled experimental study with 14 students of the fifth period of the Physiotherapy course. During the school year, pain neurophysiology teaching was based on active teaching-learning strategies, focused on problems and practical application of possible solutions by students. Neurophysiologic Pain Questionnaire was used to evaluate pain neurophysiology knowledge before and after the discipline. RESULTS: There has been significant improvement (p=0.002) in the number of right answers to the Neurophysiologic Pain Questionnaire at intervention completion as compared to baseline evaluation. CONCLUSION: Physiotherapy students have improved their knowledge about pain neurophysiology with the use of active teaching-learning strategies.