Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2025

Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram
Published on: July 7, 2023
Developing consensus among people living with pain on what health professionals should know about their lived
Emilie Houston1, Peter Stilwell1, Lynn Cooper1
1School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montréal, Canada.
Purpose:
To address suboptimal pain competency in undergraduate health professional education programs, several organizations are now including people with chronic pain in courses to teach students about the experience of living with pain. This study aimed to achieve consensus among people living with pain regarding what health professions students should learn about the experience of pain.
Materials And Methods:
A participatory three-round Delphi process was used, where 27 people living with pain voted on sub-themes about the experience of pain. Sub-themes achieving at least 75% agreement were approved, while others were revised and presented again in subsequent rounds. Inductive content analysis of the approved sub-themes was conducted, and participants endorsed the final product.
Results:
A total of 39 sub-themes were approved, grouped into seven higher-order themes, including: the personal impacts of pain; harmful effects of stigma; adapting to living with pain; managing pain; connections between pain and mental health; challenges in pain assessment and diagnosis; and expectations from healthcare.
Conclusions:
The consensus themes are considered relevant across various health professions and can serve as a valuable aid for pain educators to assess their teaching and guide the involvement of people living with pain in educational activities.
Related Concept Videos
Analgesia and Pain Management
Ethical Issues
Ethical Concerns in Healthcare:
Health Literacy
Ethical Dilemmas II
Documentation in Long-Term and Home Healthcare Setting
Long-Term Care Facilities
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...

