P.A.I.N. Workshop 8

Information

1. Structure of workshop

Before arriving in Brussels, invited participants were sent selected literature about cancer pain management and the methodology to be followed. Their preliminary tasks were to ensure they understood the problem, their role and to identify relevant pathways, guidelines, checklists and research findings in the literature. Following a detailed introduction, there were three work group sessions (Figure below), dealing with:

pain assessment
treatment elements
treatment implementation

P.A.I.N. 8 - Structure of workshop
Structure of the workshop

Each session followed the same format. Firstly, the objectives of the session were explained to the whole meeting. Participants then divided into three subgroups to devise a section of the pathway, assisted by a moderator. After feedback from members of the other two groups, each group finalised its findings and one member gave a presentation on them to the entire meeting. Consensus on these results was reached using the Delphi method. Essentially, if more than 80% of the participants agreed with the results then consensus was deemed to have been achieved. If more than 20% disagreed, opposing views were voiced and/or the results were incrementally amended until the required level of agreement was attained.