"I try and smile, I try and be cheery, I try not to be pushy. I try to say ‘I’m here for help’ but I leave feeling… worried’’: A qualitative study of perceptions of interactions with health professionals by community-based older adults with chronic pain

Background: Over 50% of community-dwelling older adults experience chronic pain, which threatens their quality of life. Of importance to their pain management is older people’s interaction with health professionals that, if unsatisfactory, may impair the outcome. Aims: To add to the limited research specific to older people living with chronic pain in the community, we explored how they perceive their experiences of interacting with health professionals, seeking factors that might optimise these interactions. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to recruit men and women .65 years with self-reported musculoskeletal chronic pain. Qualitative individual interviews and one group interview were undertaken with 23 participants. Data were transcribed verbatim and underwent Framework Analysis. Results: Three themes were identified. Seeking help illustrates issues around why older people in the community may or may not seek help for chronic pain, and highlights the potential involvement of social comparison. Importance of diagnosis illustrates the desire for professional validation of their condition and an aversion to vague explanations based on the person’s age. Being listened to and being heard illustrates the importance of empathic communication and understanding expectations, with due respect for the person’s age. Conclusions: In common with people of all ages, an effective partnership between an older person in pain and health professionals is essential if pain is to be reported, appropriately assessed and managed, because of the subjective nature of pain and its treatment responses. For older people with pain, perception about their age, by both parties in the partnership, is an additional factor that can unnecessarily interfere with the effectiveness of this partnership. Health professionals should engage with older adults to clarify their expectations about pain and its management, which may be influenced by perceptions about age; and to encourage expression of their concerns, which may also be affected by perceptions about age

After colonic surgery: The lived experience of participating in a fast-track programme

Postoperative recovery can be accelerated and hospitalization reduced through fast-track programmes. However, documented knowledge is limited and primarily focusing on a medical perspective whereas the patients' perspective lacks documentation. This study describes the lived experience of participating in a fast-track programme after colonic surgery. Sixteen patients were interviewed twice. The interviews were analysed using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Participating in a fast-track programme is characterized by a process where patients experience how the daily regimen works both with them and against them. To succeed in the overall goal of recovering fast according to the evidence-based care plan involves facing dilemmas and mobilizing courage and will to follow the regimen. Support from the professionals is crucial. The participants had a strong desire to comply and regain health; but this role of being a good and cooperative patient had a built-in asymmetric power relationship favouring the professionals' expectations. The complexities of this power relationship were related to both patient factors and contextual factors, e.g. the daily regimen and hospital norms. Although patient participation in care is an accepted ideal, it is demanding and difficult to accomplish. More studies on fast-track programmes are needed, with special attention to patient autonomy and partnership

Parent involvement in children's pain care: views of parents and nurses

Aim of the study. This study investigated the views of parents and nurses about the involvement of parents in the management of their child’s pain during the first 48 hours after surgery. Background. Children’s pain management has been found to be problematic and in need of improvement. Nurses are the key health care professionals with responsibility for managing children’s pain. Parents can make important contributions to assessment and management of their child’s pain. Methods. Using a phenomenological approach, nurses and parents were interviewed about their perceptions of parent involvement in pain management. Findings. The findings indicated that parental involvement in their child’s pain management is superficial and limited in nature. Parents described a passive role in relation to their child’s pain care and conveyed feelings of frustration. Only a minority of parents expressed satisfaction with their child’s pain care. Nurses perceived that there was adequate involvement of parents and adequate pain management for children. Conclusions. These findings may be somewhat explained by differing views and a lack of effective communication between parents and nurses. There is a clear need for nurses to discuss parent involvement with parents and negotiate roles in relation to pain management.</br

Pain and Interoception Imaging Network (PAIN): A multimodal, multisite, brain-imaging repository for chronic somatic and visceral pain disorders

The Pain and Interoceptive Imaging Network (PAIN) repository (painrepository.org) is a newly created NIH (NIDA/NCCAM) funded neuroimaging data repository that aims to accelerate scientific discovery regarding brain mechanisms in pain and to provide more rapid benefits to pain patients through the harmonization of efforts and data sharing. The PAIN Repository consists of two components, an Archived Repository and a Standardized Repository. Similar to other ‘open’ imaging repositories, neuroimaging researchers can deposit any dataset of chronic pain patients and healthy controls into the Archived Repository. Scans in the Archived Repository can be very diverse in terms of scanning procedures and clinical metadata, complicating the merging of datasets for analyses. The Standardized Repository overcomes these limitations through the use of standardized scanning protocols along with a standardized set of clinical metadata, allowing an unprecedented ability to perform pooled analyses. The Archived Repository currently includes 741 scans and is rapidly growing. The Standardized Repository currently includes 433 scans. Pain conditions currently represented in the PAIN repository include: irritable bowel syndrome, vulvodynia, migraine, chronic back pain, and inflammatory bowel disease. Both the PAIN Archived and Standardized Repositories promise to be important resources in the field of chronic pain research. The enhanced ability of the Standardized Repository to combine imaging, clinical and other biological datasets from multiple sites in particular, make it a unique resource for significant scientific discoveries