Developing Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education

Around one in five Australians live with chronic pain, a number projected to rise in future years. Chronic pain is one of the world's major healthcare needs, with serious financial and social implications for individuals, families and communities.

Best practice in pain management involves care delivered by inter- and multi-disciplinary teams under the biopsychosocial approach. Despite the need for skilled health practitioners from multiple disciplines to address the growing burden of pain on the community, there is generally limited pain management content in health practitioner education at all levels worldwide. In Australia, pain management education varies greatly across health practitioner disciplines, geographic locations and education stages.

National standards will provide a framework for the development and delivery of pain management education, ensuring consistency across disciplines and education sectors. The standards will be a set of concise statements that act as quality markers for health practitioner pain management education. They will provide a valuable benchmark to regulators when assessing education programs.
 
Importantly, the standards will provide a template for changing the way in which we develop and deliver pain education to ensure that it is accessible and relevant for all. The national standards will assist in ensuring a consistent approach to pain management education across disciplines and support internal consistency between the stages/levels of a health practitioner’s education journey.
These standards will be aspirational with the aim of improving the care of individuals experiencing pain. 
 
The standards will:

• be relevant across multiple health practitioner disciplines and levels of education;
• be underpinned by the values and principles of the National Strategy for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education;
• provide a framework for the development and delivery of pain management education, ensuring consistency across disciplines and educations sectors within Australia;
• provide a template for changing the way that pain education is developed and delivered to ensure that it is accessible and relevant for all;
• and be inclusive of the needs of priority populations.

A governance advisory group, consisting of representatives from a diverse range of stakeholder groups, met for the first time in May 2024. The purpose of the group is to provide advice and guidance to the project team.

The members of the group are as follows:

• Ms Martina Otten, FPM Executive Director, and Chair 
• Dr Tim Austin, Chair, Australian Physiotherapy Association National Pain Group 
• A/Prof Lilon Bandler, Senior Research Fellow, Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education (LIME) Network (until October 2024)
• Dr Shayne Bellingham, Project Lead, LIME Network (until October 2024)
• Prof Anne Burke, Lead, South Australian Chronic Pain Statewide Clinical Network
• Ms Holly Bradstreet, Registered Nurse, Australian College of Nursing
• Mr Chris Campbell, General Manager, Policy and Program Delivery, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
• Prof Susan Hillier, Professor, Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of South Australia
• Ms Fiona Hodson, Vice-Chairperson, Chronic Pain Australia
• Dr Phoebe Holdenson Kimura, Clinical Advisor, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
• Ms Nidia Raya Martinez, Program Manager for the Australian Multicultural Health Collaborative, Federation of Ethnic Committees’ Council of Australia
• Ms Helen Maxwell-Wright, Consumer representative, ANZCA
• Mr Sean Mutchmor, General Manager, Quality and Safety, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine
• A/Prof Michael Reynolds, Indigenous Allied Health Australia
• Prof Helen Slater, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University
• Dr Adele Stewart, Chair, RACGP Pain Management Special Interest Group
• Mr Sinan Tejani, Australian Pain Society Director, Tasmania
• Dr Noam Winter, Head of Pain Services, Alfred Health, and FPM Board Member 

To support broad acceptance of the education standards across the health and education sectors, the project incorporated extensive and inclusive stakeholder consultation. The pain education standards address the needs of priority populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, rural and remote populations, people living with disability, and children and adolescents.

Between mid-August and November, the project team delivered a comprehensive national consultation program, comprising five in-person workshops held in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, alongside three online workshops. In addition, two targeted online discussions were conducted with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners, and with culturally and linguistically diverse health practitioners and people with lived experience of pain.

In total, 265 participants registered for the workshops, with 207 attending. Participants included people with lived experience of pain and representatives from a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, education and government. Attendees represented multiple disciplines, and diverse organisations such as not-for-profit agencies, medical colleges, professional associations and peak bodies. Individuals who registered but were unable to attend were kept informed of project outcomes and next steps.

Following the extensive stakeholder consultations conducted in mid-2024, the project team undertook systematic coding and thematic analysis of the consultation data. A subset of workshop participants subsequently reviewed and confirmed the internal validity of the identified themes.

On 12 November 2024, the project’s Governance Advisory Group reviewed the validated themes, internal validity findings, and the proposed next steps. External validity was then confirmed through consultation with relevant stakeholders who had not participated in the original workshops.

In parallel, the project team and Governance Advisory Group, supported by an external consultant, completed a comprehensive review of relevant guidelines, policies, legislation and related materials underpinning health practitioner pain management education. This work ensures the standards are evidence-based and aligned with current policy settings, legislative requirements and best practice.

The project continues to progress well and remains firmly on track. Drafting of the pain management education standards commenced in January, informed by the extensive stakeholder consultation undertaken throughout 2024. Through thematic analysis of the consultation data, rigorous internal and external validation processes, and careful consideration by the project’s Governance Advisory Group, the following topics have been identified for development as standards (as at May 2025).

Education and training for health practitioners in pain management:

• promotes a person-centred approach to care

• is developed and delivered in alignment with contemporary approaches to learning and teaching

• is based on the best available evidence

• promotes reflective practice and self-awareness

• builds health practitioners’ understanding of, and capability in, effective communication with people experiencing pain

• embeds a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to pain management

During April and May, the six draft standards were the focus of a Delphi process involving the project’s Governance Advisory Group.

A major stakeholder consultation on the draft standards was held from 23 June to 18 July 2025. Invitations to complete the survey were sent to key contacts within relevant organisations, as well as to individuals who had participated in the standards development process (e.g. through stakeholder workshops) or had previously registered their interest. The survey was also promoted through organisational e-newsletters, social media, and conference presentations. Two follow-up reminders were issued — one midway through the consultation period and another in the final week.

The consultation was delivered as an online, open-access survey. Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with each component of the draft standards: the overarching theme, the associated standards within that theme, and the criteria for each standard. Those who disagreed or strongly disagreed were invited to provide a rationale via an open-ended question. Participants who agreed also had the option to share additional comments.

The survey received 164 interactions in total. Of these, 27 respondents indicated they were formally representing an organisation, while 137 responded as interested individuals.

Among the 27 organisational responses, three did not provide specific feedback but did access and review the draft standards. Of the 137 individual participants, 109 provided responses to at least one survey question.

Respondent profile:

• 34 (31.2%) primarily worked in academic roles.

• 17 (15.6%) identified as health consumers.

• 58 (53.2%) primarily worked in a health discipline.

* Many respondents reported holding secondary roles (e.g. academics who also had clinical responsibilities).

Levels of agreement with the draft standards:

• Overarching standards (themes): At least 94.7% agreed or strongly agreed (range: 94.7–99.2%).

• Associated standards within each theme: At least 90.7% agreed or strongly agreed (range: 90.7–97.3%).

• Criteria for each standard: At least 84.8% agreed or strongly agreed (range: 84.8–93.6%).

Feedback gathered from the open-ended questions was carefully reviewed by the project team and used to refine the draft standards. The revised version was considered by the project’s governance advisory group at their meeting in August with further minor changes being made.

The penultimate set of draft standards was approved by the FPM Board in September and the final project report (including the final set of draft standards) was submitted to government on 13 October 2025.  

To maximise accessibility once the standards are formally endorsed by government, a dedicated “online hub” has been developed to house them. The hub also includes resources to support understanding and encourage uptake of the standards. 

All stakeholders will be informed once the standards are approved and the online hub is live. If you have any questions regarding the standards, please contact FPM. To keep up to date with project updates and the launch, please follow us on LinkedIn.