| Sumario: | There have been calls for more mobilization of social workers within chronic pain services because social workers are uniquely positioned to address stress, depression, and anxiety related to pain. This qualitative study aimed to understand social work students' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of participating in an interprofessional pain curriculum. Four focus groups were conducted with 14 participants who were graduate-level social work students that participated in an interprofessional pain curriculum symposium. This study revealed five benefits to students: i) learning new knowledge about pain, ii) applying social work knowledge and skills, iii) gaining confidence in the value of social work contributions to care, iv) exposing other disciplines to social work, and v) collaborating with other disciplines. This study also revealed four challenges: i) learning biomedical content, ii) inadequate social work-specific content, iii) encountering difficulties with interprofessional collaboration, and iv) other disciplines having had little previous exposure to social work. Understanding the benefits and challenges of participating in an interprofessional education symposium on pain will help social work educators better prepare social work students to engage in such learning opportunities, and ultimately, will better prepare social workers for a future practice in interprofessional collaborative contexts.
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