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. 2025 Dec;57(1):2466671.
doi: 10.1080/07853890.2025.2466671. Epub 2025 Feb 22.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of pain management among Taiwanese physicians in a reformed 2-year postgraduate training programme: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey

Jia-Lin Chen  1 , Shung-Tai Ho  1   2 , Chun-Chang Yeh  1 , Chi-Wei Feng  1 , Che-Hao Hsu  3 , Tso-Chou Lin  1
Affiliations

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of pain management among Taiwanese physicians in a reformed 2-year postgraduate training programme: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey

Jia-Lin Chen et al. Ann Med. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Taiwan implemented a reformed 6-year medical education in 2013, with a subsequent 2-year postgraduate training programme starting in August 2019. This study investigated the perceptions of acute and chronic pain management in postgraduate physicians.

Methods: In late July 2023, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted of Taiwanese physicians who had almost completed their postgraduate 2-year or 1-year training and those who were starting a postgraduate programme in early August 2023. This survey evaluated their knowledge, attitude and clinical experience related to opioid-based pain management and their perceptions of the opioid crisis in the United States and Taiwan.

Results: Of the 197 postgraduate physicians, 169 (85.8%) responded to the survey. Physicians who had received postgraduate 2-year (n = 48) and 1-year (n = 51) training had a deeper understanding of opioids (p < 0.001) and exhibited greater confidence in acute and chronic pain management (both p < 0.001) compared with those who were just starting a postgraduate programme (n = 70). Of the included physicians, 92 (54.4%) were aware of the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States, but only 28 (16.6%) disagreed with the notion of a current opioid problem in Taiwan. Approximately 27.8% had never heard of multimodal analgesia, and 86.4% expressed a need for further pain management education.

Conclusions: The postgraduate training programme in Taiwan provides enhanced knowledge of opioids and improves physicians' levels of confidence in acute and chronic pain management. However, only one-sixth of postgraduate physicians are aware that Taiwan does not have an opioid problem.

Keywords: Attitude; knowledge; opioid; pain management; postgraduate.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

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Graphical abstract
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The postgraduate year-2 (PGY2) and year-1 (PGY1) physicians were more confident in managing post-operative acute pain and chronic cancer pain compared with those who just started the postgraduate training programme (PGY0).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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