The Pain at Work Toolkit for Employees with Chronic or Persistent Pain: A Collaborative-Participatory Study

Blake, Holly; Somerset, Sarah; Greaves, Sarah

Abstract

Self-management tools for people with chronic or persistent pain tend to focus on symptom reporting, treatment programmes or exercise and do not address barriers to work, facilitators of work ability, or workplace pain self-management strategies. We developed the Pain at Work (PAW) toolkit, an evidence-based digital toolkit to provide advice on how employees can self-manage their pain at work. In a collaborative-participatory design, 4-step Agile methodology (N = 452) was used to co-create the toolkit with healthcare professionals, employers and people with chronic or persistent pain. Step 1: stakeholder consultation event (n = 27) established content and format; Step 2: online survey with employees who have persistent pain (n = 274) showed employees fear disclosing their condition, and commonly report discrimination and lack of line manager support. Step 3: online employer survey (n = 107) showed employers rarely provide self-management materials or education around managing pain at work, occupational health recommendations for reasonable adjustments are not always actioned, and pain-related stigma is common. Step 4: Toolkit development integrated findings and recommendations from Steps 1–3, and iterative expert peer review was conducted (n = 40). The PAW toolkit provides (a) evidence-based guidelines and signposting around work-capacity advice and support; (b) self-management strategies around working with chronic or persistent pain, (c) promotion of healthy lifestyles, and quality of life at work; (d) advice on adjustments to working environments and workplace solutions to facilitate work participation.

Citation

Blake, H., Somerset, S., & Greaves, S. (2022). The Pain at Work Toolkit for Employees with Chronic or Persistent Pain: A Collaborative-Participatory Study. Healthcare, 10(1), Article 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10010056

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 27, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 29, 2021
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Journal: Healthcare
• Electronic ISSN: 2227-9032
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 56
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10010056
• Keywords: Health Information Management; Health Informatics; Health Policy; Leadership and Management
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7356583
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/10/1/56