Saturday, September 6, 2014

Part One - A Look Back and Look Up: Could history be a guide for treating chronic pain? by Celeste Cooper

The original article will appear in the September issue of Kansas City Nursing News as a contributing columnist to honor pain awareness month. It is rewritten from a patient perspective.

This is the first article of a three part series to kick off “Chronic Pain Awareness.” We will explore the history of the patient-physician relationship, its effect on trust, and question how specialized medicine and advanced technology has made an impact on patient care.

As a registered nurse turned author, advocate, and patient, I have worn many hats. I have also seen many shifts in the delivery models of healthcare. However, the biggest pendulum swing affecting me is the treatment and judgment by others as a chronic pain patient. I went from a high functioning nurse collaborating on patient care to healthcare consumer. I have felt judged and I have been treated differently by some. I have thoughts on why this might be. 

In American history, the local doctor treated everything. Patients valued their doctor as the authority. It didn't matter if we knew our blood pressure, because patients trusted their doctor to know what to do, but more than that, this trust was mutual. Because of this, we felt comfortable sharing our experiences including how living with chronic pain affected all aspects of our lives, and our doctor listened. Our doctor knew how chronic pain was affecting our families, our ability to socialize, our emotional and spiritual stability, and the financial impact having chronic pain created for us. Our doctor felt obliged to help us lead the most productive life possible. Physicians weren't required to get the government’s permission to prescribe medication and other treatments, and if they saw we were abusing our medications, they spoke us, because they cared about this too. They didn't judge because they knew who we were before chronic pain. Today, it is unlikely the doctor treating our pain knows us at all.

With time and the human desire to explore, make things better; find a vaccination for polio, for instance, the delivery of medical care has morphed into a system of specialties and advanced technology. The days of bartering or trading services and patients feeling responsible for making sure their physician was also cared for has become outdated. So, how did we go from historic trust and physician-patient familiarity to distrust and judgment? It seems out of place to me and against the grain of what I learned in nursing school and from my life’s lessons. Living through this shift in attitude is probably the hardest thing for me to accept, because I have seen different days in my more than six decades of life.

Humans, as do animals, interact and recognize non-verbal cues by establishing eye contact. So I am disturbed that some healthcare providers no longer look at me while I talk. Instead, they are busy looking at, and documenting, on their laptop. Would the local doctor of the 19th century, the one who would take a dozen eggs for their service, ever consider it respectful to bury their head in a book while their patient was sharing their innermost fears? Would any of us be able to communicate and foster trust with someone who doesn't look us in the eye?

Studies show there is judgment affixed to having or caring for someone in pain. Can we, as patients, and our providers look back and learn? Can we all simply “look up?” (See “Communication with Your Healthcare Provider, here.) As a patient, I want to feel the warmth one can only experience through compassion, touch, and trust. I want to feel the security that is fostered when my physician comes eye to eye with me, smiles, or reaches out to touch me in a gesture of "I care." I want to feel secure. I want a mutual exchange of information, and I want my doctor or nurse to explain things in a way I understand.

We must embrace technology, but not at the expense of becoming less human. Would Florence Nightingale think we have advanced? Would she believe we have to sacrifice eye contact or compassionate behaviors in order to appreciate the advancement in technology, specialization of medicine, or communication and trust?

As patients, we have made some changes too, but I suspect our anger, our distrust, and our own attitudes have evolved as a result of poor communication and the aloofness technology has infused into our lives. How can we effect change in our relationships with our providers? Can we simply ask our healthcare provider to see us as a fellow human being, a member of the same team? We also have ownership in this process. We too should keep those few minutes with our physician sacrosanct and return our cell phones to our pockets, treat our appointment time as we would our time with an old friend. CAN WE simply—

 UP

See tips for effective communication to learn more about how we can foster our relationship with our healthcare provider.

In the next segment, (here) we will explore how your healthcare provider can gain a plethora of valuable information that will give them a better understanding on how chronic pain affects your life.

Side Note:
Advocates are coming together to address the needs of our society, in particular, the needs of approximately 100 million Americans who live in chronic pain. The PAINS Alliance, an initiative of the Center for Practical Bioethics believes that the only way to realize transformation in the way pain is perceived and treated in America is "to combine the collective power of organizations and those they serve — people living with pain — in a sustained effort to improve the delivery of pain in America." I am pleased to be a participant in this most important, energetic, and patient focused alliance of influential organizations and individuals, and now you can be too, here . 
This collective and integrative group has a mission to advocate for and act collectively to actualize the recommendations set forth in the Institute of Medicine (IOM)  report “Relieving Pain in America, A Blue Print for Transforming Prevention,Care, Education and Research. Those who participate believe it is our vision that all Americans living with pain will have access to integrated pain care consistent with their goals and values. You can now join as an individual . 


“Continued emotional support is vital to the functioning of a family member 
in pain and to aiding in his or her rehabilitation.”
– INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE, RELIEVING PAIN IN AMERICA, 2011

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"Adversity is only an obstacle if we fail to see opportunity."  
Celeste Cooper, RN
Author—Patient—Health Central Chronic Pain ProAdvocate


Learn more about what you can do to help your body function to its potential in the books you can find here on Celeste's  blog


All answers and blogs are based on the author's opinions and writing and are not meant to replace medical advice.  

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