• M A Plymale, P A Sloan, M Johnson, P LaFountain, J Snapp, and D A Sloan.
• Departments of Surgery, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, USA.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2000 Jul 1; 20 (1): 4-11.

AbstractThe Structured Clinical Instruction Module (SCIM) is an educational format developed for the teaching of clinical and interpersonal skills. The purpose of this study was to develop and pilot-test a SCIM to enhance medical students' learning and understanding about cancer pain assessment and management. The Cancer Pain SCIM was presented to 34 third-year medical students. Eight instructors and six standardized patients (five cancer patients) participated in the course. All participants evaluated the course using a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Students self-assessed their clinical skills before and after the course using a five-point scale (1 = not competent; 5 = very competent). Students agreed [mean (S.D.)] very strongly that the SCIM was a valuable educational experience [4.4 (0.56)] and that it was beneficial to use actual cancer patients in the SCIM [4.5 (0.63)]. Students believed their skills in the assessment and management of cancer pain significantly improved after the course. The SCIM is a valuable and novel instructional format to teach essential skills in the assessment and management of cancer pain to medical students.

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