Pain communication in paediatric and adolescent rheumatology
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identifying current approaches to pain assessment and communication in paediatric and adolescent rheumatology
IRAS ID
276591
Contact name
Rebecca R Lee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Research to date has identified the challenges to conducting effective pain assessment and communication about pain from healthcare professionals’ perspectives (Lee et al, 2019), but no research to our knowledge has yet explored how this fits with children, young people’s, parents’ perspectives or actual clinical behaviour, which may be different when the child/young person is or is not present with the professional. The purpose of this research is to explore pain communication and identify effective and ineffective assessment of pain in three UK paediatric and adolescent rheumatology outpatient centres: The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Liverpool Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Sheffield Children’s Hospital. The research comprises of 3 Phases. Phase 1 will be a semi-structured interview study, exploring children, young peoples and parents’ perspectives, experiences and preferences of current pain assessment and communication approaches in clinics. Phase 2 will be a naturalistic overt non-participant observation study of audio-recorded triadic (between children/young people, parents and healthcare professionals) and dyadic (between professionals and adolescents) clinical consultations, identifying the extent to which pain is discussed in clinic and the nature of these conversations. Phase 3 will follow a naturalistic overt non-participant ethnographic design observation of multi-disciplinary team meetings in the paediatric and adolescent rheumatology departments. This phase will involve a thematic analysis of underlying psychological, organisational and social processes that influence discussions had about children/young people and interactions with other healthcare professionals. This research has been funded by Versus Arthritis as part of a 3-year Foundation Fellowship award.
References
1) Lee, R. R., Rashid, A., Thomson, W., & Cordingley, L. (2019). 'Reluctant to assess pain': A qualitative study of healthcare professionals' beliefs about the role of pain in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Arthritis Care & Research.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/EM/0195
Date of REC Opinion
25 Sep 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion