Qualitative Health Communication

Communicating the experience of living with chronic pain: The role of non-verbal communication and the power of lessons learned

2023-06-03T09:21:33+02:00

Background: Chronic pain is hard to communicate due to its invisible, inaudible, and imprecise nature. Outside of pain scales that try to quantify pain, individuals with chronic pain have a hard time expressing it, yet pain management relies on effective communication. This study explores how women with chronic pain enrolled in an online therapeutic writing workshop communicate the experience of living with chronic pain to fellow sufferers. Methods: A six-week online therapeutic writing workshop was conducted with individuals with chronic pain who responded to weekly creative writing prompts that focused on mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy strategies including attention, emotional regulation, and examining thoughts and attitudes. Participants were recruited by their primary care provider; seven participants enrolled. All posts were aggregated and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Data analysis from participants’ posts reveal two interpretive repertoires including physical evidence of pain where participants expressed visible impacts of pain occurring in their home environments and communicated non-verbally in gestures and behaviors. Secondly, the theme of lessons learned from living with pain emerged including enhanced empathy, the need for self-care, and sharing coping skills. Conclusion: This study extends our understanding of the experience of living with chronic pain outside of a medical context by providing new insights gained from their creative writing responses. The online therapeutic writing workshop fostered a community of support where participants were empowered to express their pain, identify their pain behaviors, and invite cognitive restructuring to learn from their pain.

Enacting communication cycles after prediabetes: Mothers’ stories of diabetes risk and seeking support

2023-05-02T11:44:12+02:00

Background: Diabetes is a family systems experience of multiple intergenerational relationships. Communicating about diabetes as a familial risk helps individuals perceive greater control over preventing diabetes. Aim: The present study investigates how mothers disclose their prediabetes to their family and the precipitating family communication, with the goal to interrupt the multigenerational legacy of diabetes. Method: Data were collected from a Family Medicine outpatient clinic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to illicit information about mother-child communication about diabetes. Sort and Sift, Think and Shift analysis provided rich descriptions of mothers’ experiences. Results: The sample consisted of 9 women with prediabetes, aged 42-70, who had at least one child. Eight participants described at least 2 generations of family members with a diabetes-related diagnosis (prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and gestational diabetes). First, we present two contextual factors that preexisted the prediabetes diagnosis, which influenced the disclosure decision: general health communication approach and personal evaluation of diabetes. Second, we present the communication cycles that supported self-management. Discussion: Continual communication cycles with family and clinicians can support mothers with prediabetes to enact self-management behaviors and delay the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: Mothers need family members to respond favorably to complete a positive communication cycle that can generate continuous emotional, social, and instrumental support.

The discursive construction of person-centredness in online information leaflets addressed to patients with cancer

2023-05-24T13:41:08+02:00

Background: This article is part of a project that examines the discursive constructions of the concepts, ‘patient’ and ‘patient identity’ in documents regarding national laws and steering documents, as well as regional steering documents, and how these constructions appear in online patient information leaflets. Aim: The focus of the article is whether person-centredness as an approach to the patient is prevalent in the discourses found in regional online materials for cancer patients in Denmark. Methods: The study uses a mixed method approach analysing the data within a critical discourse analytical framework, combined with quantitative analyses conducted using the corpus analysis software program, AntConc. Results: The present study reveals that the patient’s scope of action is most often limited in patient information leaflets. Patients are positioned as objects for the actions of the healthcare staff even though different constructions of person-centredness are present. Discussion: A person-centred culture must also be present in the way the professional staff and management communicate and cooperate. Conclusions: As a layperson and object, the patient is given an identity as a medical case, not as an involved and actively participating person. There are only minor signs of a person-centred approach.