Pain Assessment and Opioid Stewardship
Assess pain properly, treat it adequately, and use opioids without creating harm.
Program overview
Pain is simultaneously under-treated and over-medicated, often in the same institution. This course covers structured assessment including in patients who cannot self-report, multimodal analgesia and the non-opioid options that are routinely skipped, opioid selection, conversion and titration, monitoring for sedation and respiratory depression, the recognition of tolerance and dependence, and safe discharge prescribing. It treats stewardship as a clinical quality issue rather than a restriction exercise.
Why this program
Assessment taught first, including non-verbal patients
Multimodal analgesia emphasised over opioid-first practice
Sedation monitoring covered properly
Stewardship framed as quality, not restriction
Who it is for
Program objectives
- Assess pain systematically including in patients who cannot self-report
- Apply multimodal analgesia principles
- Select and titrate opioids appropriately for a clinical context
- Monitor for sedation and respiratory depression reliably
- Recognise tolerance, dependence and withdrawal
- Apply safe discharge prescribing and review practice
Learning outcomes
- Apply an appropriate assessment tool to a described patient
- Construct a multimodal analgesic plan for a described case
- Perform an opioid conversion accurately
- Identify sedation risk from described monitoring findings
- Differentiate tolerance, dependence and addiction
- Evaluate a discharge opioid prescription for appropriateness
Curriculum
Module 1: Assessing Pain Properly
1 lessonsAssessing Pain ProperlyPreview
Tools, self-report, and patients who cannot tell you.
Module 2: Multimodal Analgesia
1 lessons- Multimodal Analgesia
Module 3: Opioids: Selection and Titration
1 lessons- Opioids: Selection and Titration
Module 4: Monitoring for Harm
1 lessons- Monitoring for Harm
Module 5: Dependence and Discharge
1 lessons- Dependence and Discharge
Duration and structure
5 lessons across 5 modules. Duration is expressed in study hours.
What you receive
This certificate confirms completion of Pain Assessment and Opioid Stewardship. Duration is expressed in study hours.
Delivery format
- Self-paced — start any time.
- Study on any device.
- Lifetime access to the version you enrolled in.