Dismantling ableism in health professions education: imperative in psychosocial management of pain.

Pain and chronic pain are prevalent and costly. Integrative models of pain management including the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of pain are central to contemporary public health efforts to address pain, however, uptake of the BPS model of pain in patient care is inconsistent. Aspects of health professions education (HPE) have been identified as barriers to BPS use including emphasis on the medical model and the hidden curriculum. Similarly, hidden curriculum in HPE limits disability inclusion and reduces healthcare accessibility. This perspective offers a conceptual framing of ableism as a driving force for both marginalizing and exclusionary features in HPE. Ableism centers on normative ways of functioning, thinking, and being, which contributes to training of providers who may not apply holistic and multidimensional understanding of pain. Dismantling ableism and working toward anti-ableist HPE requires recognition of ableism, cultivating environments that model anti-ableist approaches, and addressing the contributing systems. By transforming learning environments and promoting anti-ableist HPE, the same dispositional and structural conditions needed for BPS approaches to pain can be achieved.