The following is a summary of “Confidence of practitioners to support self-management of pain: A multidisciplinary survey,” published in the November 2023 issue of Pain by Penlington et al.

Supporting self-management of persistent pain is essential, but whether staff from different disciplines are confident in introducing and supporting it is still being determined.

Researchers started a retrospective study to identify factors associated with staff confidence in introducing and supporting self-management for persistent pain.

They constructed charts to depict details on professional grouping, antecedent training in self-management, and assurance in supporting essential elements of self-management for persistent pain. Differences between groups were tested using analysis of variance.

The results showed  165 practitioners were confident to support self-management below the midpoint (5) on a ten-point scale, while 93 reported confidence above. Most professional groups showed similar confidence levels, except in explaining pain (f = 6.879, P<.001), managing activity levels (f = 6.340, P<.001), and supporting healthy habits (f = 4.700, P=.001), where physiotherapists exhibited higher confidence. Confidence levels did not differ between those with and without prior self-management training (f = 1.357, P=.233).

Investigators concluded that front-line staff need upskilling to introduce and support self-management for persistent pain.

Source: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20494637231212748