Experiences of Rehabilitation Professionals in Guiding Rehabilitation for People with Persistent Spinal Pain Syndrome
Dries Ceulemans1,2, Lisa Goudman3,4,5,6,7, Michiel Reneman8
1Occupational Therapy Research Group, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Healthcare Sciences, Ghent University, Corneel Heymanslaan 10, 9000, Ghent, Belgium. Dries.Ceulemans@UGent.be.
Purpose:
People with chronic low back pain, or more specifically, Persistent Spinal Pain Syndrome Type 2, experience decreased functionality and quality of life, resulting in a heavy personal and societal burden worldwide. Increasing the capacity of a person to participate in meaningful activities, including return to work, has gained substantial attention, but results remain suboptimal. Gaining more insight into stakeholder experiences is crucial to enhance outcomes. This study aims to investigate the lived experiences of rehabilitation professionals in guiding rehabilitation for people with Persistent Spinal Pain Syndrome type 2 in a research context.
Methods:
An interpretative hermeneutic-phenomenological study was conducted to generate an interpretative understanding of rehabilitation professionals' lived experience in delivering an intervention within a structured research context. Data were collected during semi-structured interviews with 10 rehabilitation professionals. Data analysis followed an interpretative hermeneutic process.
Results:
The following experiences were identified: (1) a structured balance between capacity and demand; (2) leaving the current pain-oriented approach; (3) a catalyst for work-oriented reasoning beyond workability; (4) the emerging need for building towards interdisciplinarity; and (5) multiple layers of personalisation.
Conclusion:
Personalisation is most effective when embedded within a multimodal rehabilitation framework that addresses the physical, psychological, occupational, and contextual domains of functioning. However, it remains a concept that is hard to grasp. Workability-focused protocols may function not only as treatment frameworks but also as catalysts for broader return-to-work reasoning. Although multidisciplinarity is a solid structure, interdisciplinarity is preferred.