Health Professionals' Perspectives of Working with Children and Adolescents Experiencing Chronic Pain: Barriers and Facilitators.

Abstract

Objectives: To identify health professional's perception of barriers, facilitators and training needs when working with children experiencing chronic pain.

Methods: Cross-sectional online survey of health professionals working with children experiencing chronic pain. Survey questions were a range of exploratory open and closed-ended questions, which included yes/no responses, choosing from a list, ranking options and open responses. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and percentages; qualitative data were analysed using content analysis.

Results: 180 health professionals took part, of which 44% were physiotherapists. Tertiary hospitals and private practices were most common workplaces. The most frequently reported categories of both barriers and facilitators were workforce and system factors, child factors and parent factors. The most frequently reported confidence areas and development areas were health professional factors, approaches to care and team structure. 75% of participants reported they were moderately to extremely interested in further training in paediatric chronic pain management and indicated a preference for interactive training rather than "passive" learning formats.

Discussion: Health professionals report a diverse range of perspectives when working with children experiencing chronic pain, including perceived barriers and facilitators to care. Most health professionals were interested in future training in paediatric chronic pain management. Future research exploring the parent and child perspective and how these factors present clinically is needed to inform future training opportunities for health professionals working with children experiencing chronic pain.