Gaps, and answering gritty questions

Research journals are full of really interesting studies, but some of the studies I’ve been reading lately seem to lack something. While they’re interesting, they don’t seem to approach some of the gritty questions clinicians need answers to. There are enormous gaps in our understanding of processes of healthcare delivery. I like to get practical when I want to ponder things. I’ll weed the garden, prune the roses, take some photographs, and recently I’ve even taken to getting out in the garage to carve and sand wood, rip pallets apart – and while I do, I let my mind wander over things that puzzle me. I don’t have answers. So where has my mind been wandering recently? One question I have is why there is so little information on the long-term relationship between primary care clinicians and people with chronic pain. There’s a little on how people get the label/diagnosis of chronic pain, like this paper from Allegretti, Borkan, Reis & Griffiths (2010), where interviews between patients and their doctors were analysed, finding that many times doctors and patients talk past one another, and that doctors may hold a more biopsychosocial model than their patients. Another paper (Dow, Roche & Ziebland, 2012) points out the frustration that patients with chronic pain often express, and their keen desire to have their pain acknowledged, recognised and validated. There’s even a paper exploring patient’s experiences when ...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Authors: Tags: Chronic pain Clinical reasoning Research biopsychosocial Source Type: blogs