It has been observed that health workers in health facilities employ wrongful procedures in administering pain to their patients.

The World Federation of Societies of Anaestheologists has therefore trained 200 specialists in essential pain management, at the second session of its training course for health professionals across the country.

The course which has two phases began with the first session in July and has trained forty (40) people.
Beneficiaries include general nurses, midwives, surgeons and pharmacists.

The essential pain management course is aimed at spreading pain management improvement services across the country.

Consultant anesthesiologist and Intensivist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Christian Owoo explained that pain is a universal feeling that can happen to anyone.

He emphasised that the course has been well received as it uses simplified systems to train all health-related professionals on how to address pain.

“This programme - the essential pain management aims not only to equip health workers with the capacity knowledge and skills to manage pain but also to teach them because it is very simple. It is made such that it can easily be communicated irrespective of the level or the coda of the health professional.”

The General Secretary of the Ghana Anaestheologist Society, D Moses Siaw-Frimpong also emphasised that the programme is targeted at training people who will also train other health professionals to properly administer pain management in their health facilities.

“The essential pain management course which is a basic course intended to guide healthcare practitioners on how to effectively and realistically manage pain.”

One of the lead trainers Dr Audrey Amoo explained that every health professional believes that the approach to pain administration is right in their own sense, thus the training is setting up a unified system where all health professionals will follow to tackle pain management in their facilities.

“So with this training, I hope to go back to my institution and train other health professionals who didn't get the chance to be a part of the programme and hopefully will affect the way we manage pain in our hospital. Up until now, everybody does what they think is right you know, but it's good to have a system in place that is systematic that everybody can follow so that we are all treating the patients in the best possible way”.

The essential pain management course targets 200 participants drawn from all health professions to have a proper tool to render pain management to its clients.