Department of Psychology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada.
Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON Canada.
Physiother Theory Pract. 2024 Jul;40(7):1501-1521. doi: 10.1080/09593985.2023.2171750. Epub 2023 Feb 7.
The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) necessitated a rapid transition to virtual care for chronic pain treatment.
This study examined experiences of patients and caregivers who received virtual multidisciplinary pain treatment (MDT) for pediatric chronic pain between March 2020 and August 2021.
A mixed methods design was implemented using qualitative interviews and quantitative satisfaction surveys. Satisfaction surveys were administered to a convenience sample of patients (aged 8 to 18; N = 20) and their caregivers (N = 20) who received MDT through an outpatient hospital pediatric chronic pain program. Interviews were conducted with a subset of these patients and their caregivers (n = 6).
Analysis of interviews revealed four themes: 1) benefits of virtual care; 2) challenges of virtual care; 3) recommendations and evaluation of virtual care; and 4) patient preferences. Analysis of the satisfaction survey data revealed that while patients and caregivers were satisfied with many aspects of virtual care, 65% (n = 13) of patients reported a preference for in-person appointments, with caregivers showing equal preference for in-person and virtual appointments, though this was a non-significant difference ( = .37). Overall, both patients and caregivers stated a stronger preference for in-person physiotherapy sessions but were willing to have psychology sessions provided virtually. Finally, the most reported preference was for a hybrid model of care incorporating at least some in-person contact with providers.
This study provides a rich exploration of virtual care for multidisciplinary pediatric chronic pain treatment. The current results may inform the future development of guidelines for virtual care delivery with pediatric chronic pain populations.
新冠病毒疾病 2019（COVID-19）的爆发要求迅速将慢性疼痛治疗转为虚拟护理。
本研究调查了 2020 年 3 月至 2021 年 8 月期间接受小儿慢性疼痛虚拟多学科疼痛治疗（MDT）的患者和护理人员的经验。
采用混合方法设计，使用定性访谈和定量满意度调查。满意度调查针对通过门诊医院小儿慢性疼痛计划接受 MDT 的便利样本患者（年龄 8 至 18 岁；N=20）及其护理人员（N=20）进行。对这些患者和他们的护理人员中的一部分进行了访谈（n=6）。
对访谈的分析揭示了四个主题：1）虚拟护理的好处；2）虚拟护理的挑战；3）虚拟护理的建议和评估；4）患者偏好。对满意度调查数据的分析表明，尽管患者和护理人员对虚拟护理的许多方面感到满意，但 65%（n=13）的患者表示更喜欢面对面预约，而护理人员对面对面和虚拟预约同样偏好，尽管这是一个无统计学差异（=。37）。总体而言，患者和护理人员都表示更倾向于面对面的物理治疗课程，但愿意接受虚拟的心理治疗课程。最后，报告最多的偏好是采用混合护理模式，至少与提供者进行一些面对面的接触。
本研究对小儿慢性疼痛多学科治疗的虚拟护理进行了深入探讨。目前的结果可能为小儿慢性疼痛人群虚拟护理提供指南的未来发展提供信息。
