Pain Management and Opioid Use - History and Current State (NA2365)

Course Format

This course is online. All course material is available online and is accessible immediately after purchase from your account homepage. Certificate of Completion is available immediately upon passing the exam.

Course Overview

This course will be a discussion of pain management. We will first discuss the history and then bring it into the modern day. Pain management has evolved greatly over the decades and, in more recent history, has been heavily influenced by the Opioid Epidemic in the United States.

This course will present the guidelines, mandates, and resulting unintended consequences of each initiative. The CDC, in response to a request from the medical community, issued guidelines relating to opioids and pain management - these guidelines, dated 2022, are in this course.

It is commonly accepted that changes need to be made in the medical community – this includes the pharmaceutical industry and government bodies and regulators. However, perhaps the biggest change that needs to be made is cultural. Patient expectations of pain management must evolve over time to acknowledge our current societal predicament. Further education on the mechanism of pain, both acute and chronic, as well as reasonable expectations of treating pain, will be a big part of healthcare professionals’ practices going forward.

Course Objectives

1. Describe pain, both chronic and acute.


2. Explain how the JACHO regulations affected early pain management.


3. List how the CDC opioid guidelines of 2016 affected pain management.


4. Review the new 2022 CDC guidelines for opioid prescribing and usage including CAM recommendations.


5. Describe how the medical system has failed patients in pain according to one physician and the effects some medical professionals are feeling regarding pain control.


6. Explain what some states are doing to promote the safer use of opioids.

Course Outline