Cancer pain education for medical students: the development of a short course on CD-ROM.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the educational value and acceptability of a short CD-ROM course on cancer pain management given to third-year medical students at the University of Kentucky.

Methods: Thirty-six medical students were given a short-course CD-ROM on cancer pain assessment and management. The Cancer Pain CD-ROM included textual instruction as well as video clips and a 15-item interactive self-assessment examination on cancer pain management.

Equipping medical students to manage cancer pain: a comparison of three educational methods.

A Cancer Pain Structured Clinical Instruction Module (SCIM), with skills stations incorporating actual cancer patients, has been developed to enhance cancer pain education among our medical students. The Cancer Pain SCIM has not been compared with more traditional cancer pain education, thus the purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness and durability of three educational methods for teaching cancer pain management to medical students compared with a control group. Four consecutive rotations of 32 third-year medical students participated in one of four cancer pain educational strategies: 1) control group with no formal cancer pain education, 2) CD-ROM self-instruction module on cancer pain, 3) a 2-hour Cancer Pain SCIM plus the CD-ROM information, and 4) Cancer Pain SCIM, plus CD-ROM, plus a structured home-hospice patient visit.