Pain Assessment and Opioid Stewardship

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Who it is for

Nurse · Physician · Pharmacist · Allied Health · Student

4. 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

5. 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

6. Curriculum

1. Module 1: Assessing Pain Properly

   • Assessing Pain Properly

2. Module 2: Multimodal Analgesia

   • Multimodal Analgesia

3. Module 3: Opioids: Selection and Titration

   • Opioids: Selection and Titration

4. Module 4: Monitoring for Harm

   • Monitoring for Harm

5. Module 5: Dependence and Discharge

   • Dependence and Discharge

7. Duration and structure

Total study hours: 3.5 — 2.75h content + 0.75h assessment. Duration is expressed in study hours only.

9. What you receive

This certificate confirms completion of Pain Assessment and Opioid Stewardship. Duration is expressed in study hours.

10. Delivery format

Self-paced · start any time · any device · lifetime access to the enrolled version.