Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 May 29:7:231-7.
doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S58656. eCollection 2014.

Australian physiotherapists and their engagement with people with chronic pain: do their emotional responses affect practice?

Shelley Barlow  1 , John Stevens  1
Affiliations

Australian physiotherapists and their engagement with people with chronic pain: do their emotional responses affect practice?

Shelley Barlow et al. J Multidiscip Healthc. .

Abstract

This study explores the experiences of Australian physiotherapists who see people with chronic pain as part of their daily practice. It has been established in the literature that Australian physiotherapists do not manage people with chronic pain well; however, the reasons for this are not well understood. This study aimed to explore this phenomenon through a qualitative approach that generated data about the perceptions of physiotherapists in regard to caring for people with chronic pain. Fourteen physiotherapists were interviewed using a semi-structured interview approach. The results indicate that the therapists experience emotional responses to people with chronic pain, which lead to difficulties in being able to successfully provide effective care. These findings also provide the beginnings of a framework that may support physiotherapists in engaging more successfully with people with chronic pain.

Keywords: clinical practice; emotional engagement; physiotherapist perceptions.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Sanders T, Foster NE, Bishop A, Ong BN. Biopsychosocial care and the physiotherapy encounter: physiotherapists’ accounts of back pain consultations. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2013;14:65. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stevenson K, Lewis M, Hay E. Does physiotherapy management of low back pain change as a result of an evidence-based educational programme? J Eval Clin Pract. 2006;12(3):365–375. - PubMed
    1. Blyth FM, March LM, Nicholas MK, Cousins MJ. Self-management of chronic pain: a population-based study. Pain. 2005;113:285–292. - PubMed
    1. Henschke N, Maher CG, Refshauge KM, Das A, McAuley JH. Low back pain research priorities: a survey of primary care practitioners. BMC Fam Pract. 2007;8:40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang H, Dwyer-Lindgren L, Lofgren KT. Age-specific and sex-specific mortality in 187 countries, 1970–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2071–2094. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources