PUnCQ; Pain Understanding and Confidence in undergraduate Healthcare Professional Students and General Practitioners in Australia.

This is a quantitative and qualitative, questionnaire study. An online survey tool will be used to gather information using the Pain Understanding and Confidence Questionnaire (PUnCQ) (Seenan et al 2017) which will be processed and analysed. The PUnCQ questionnaire has 3 parts. The first is a multiple choice quiz on components of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), undergraduate curriculum, related to a case scenario of a patient who has developed widespread chronic pain. The second section asks participants to rate their confidence in areas of the curriculum and the last section asks whether participants feel that they had enough information from their undergraduate training to be able to confidently manage persistent pain. Participants will be contacted by email and provided with a link to the online questionnaires; (https://stephengilbert989146.typeform.com/to/YDAM1q for students and https://stephengilbert989146.typeform.com/to/hFeKEV for GP's). Once they have reviewed the information sheet and provided informed consent, if they wish to take part they will click on the link and complete the questionnaire which should take no more than 5 minutes. They will then exit the study. The survey will also be publicised to students through representative bodies such as the Australian Medical Students Association, Australian Physiotherapy Association and Australian Psychological Association. Students will also be emailed directly by course organisers who are willing for their students to be contacted about the study. The study will be puclicised to GPs through the RACGP and they will also be emailed directly through GP Liaison Officers who are willing to send the information on. Ethical and legal practice will be followed, and all of the information gathered will be handled in confidence. All responses will be treated in confidence and no personal details will be stored. No identifying information will appear in any documents or in the final report. Reference; Seenan, C. et al 2017. PUnCQ; Knowledge and confidence related to pain management of pre-registration healthcare profession students in Scotland. Poster presented at the Scottish Pain Research Community (SPaRC) Annual Scientific Meeting, 24th March 2017 Dundee, Scotland