Understanding Experiences of Participants in Pain Retrained
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the Experiences of Individuals who have Participated in the 'Pain Retrained' Virtual Pain Education Programme- a qualitative study.
IRAS ID
323790
Contact name
Kevin Vowles
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
Chronic pain is common and is one of the major challenges to human health and healthcare. There are significant research gaps, in particular the best approach to treatment strategies and organisation of healthcare services is not yet known. Patients are thus suffering significant distress despite known high healthcare use. A new pain education programme- 'Pain Retrained' has been developed and is being delivered in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. This is a virtual programme provided by an interdisciplinary team. It consists of one 2 hour session per week for six weeks delivered via Microsoft Teams to a group of 20-30 patients. This programme holds great promise for people with chronic pain and it is vital that research is carried out to assess its impact. In particular, given the very personal nature of chronic pain, contextualising experiences qualitatively has the potential to offer important insights (Pate et al., 2023). The research question is 'What is the experience of participants in a virtual education programme on chronic pain delivered by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust?' The clinical team will invite those who have completed 'Pain Retrained' to participate in the study. Contact details for the research team will be provided and potentially interested individuals can contact the research team directly. Interviews will take place via Microsoft Teams. The aim is to interview 10 participants, this is the recommended number for this type of study (Smith & Nizza, 2022). Each participant will be interviewed on one occasion, interviews will take approximately 45-60 minutes. There will be opportunity for participant debrief and signposting thereafter.
Summary of Results
Analyses identified two principal themes, “It was a stretch” and “And now I can move on”. Participants expanded their understanding of chronic pain from a biomedical model to a more integrated biopsychosocial perspective, which supported a constructive shift toward engaging with evidence-based care and self-management.
Conclusion: This study offers novel insights into participants' experiences of an online pain education programme. The online format enhanced accessibility and made a longer-duration intervention more feasible for individuals. This structure allowed re- lational and temporal processes to support reconceptualization and importantly, reorientation to evidence-based care. Findings highlight the value of participatory, interdisciplinary education delivered in a format that accommodates the realities of living with chronic pain.
Significance Statement: This research advances understanding of how education can lay the foundation for recovery in chronic pain. A pivotal contribution is the identification of reorientation to evidence-based treatments as a core process within pain education. These findings extend current models of pain education by highlighting experiential elements critical to change.
The insights offer actionable direction for clinicians and service leadership seeking to develop, implement or refine accessible pain education interventions.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EM/0027
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jan 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion