Statements
| Participants' Statements at the P.A.I.N. 8 Workshop in Brussels |
|
 |
"I hope the workshop will improve physicians', social workers' and psychologists' awareness of the psychological, spiritual and social needs of patients. This has a significant impact on how well we collaborate to support them and their families in dealing with illness and pain." |
 |
"Working with colleagues from other countries, discovering similarities and differences, is very stimulating. These differences mean that we have to produce an outcome which is widely applicable, and the method we use means that we have to establish core principles, which is good." |
 |
"To establish clinical pathways in cancer pain management for general practitioners is very important. We still have an undersupply in cancer pain management, even 20 years after the publication of the WHO guidelines. Simple clinical pathways might help to change this situation." |
 |
"There are still considerable shortcomings in pain treatment which require multidisciplinary solutions. We must have proper communication between patients, relatives and all those involved in pain management. A good clinical pathway for cancer patients who have pain, with effective interaction between general practitioner, patient and pain specialist, promises the best practical help in my work as a nurse pain specialist." |
 |
"It is nice to work with other allied healthcare professionals in a multidisciplinary team, and I agree with most things that have been said. We each need to know our own strengths and weaknesses. I would really like to see the outcome influence general practice." |
 |
"Keeping discussions focused on the GP's daily routine and the 10-minute consultation is not always easy! I hope the consensus will prove to be of real practical value, as significant differences still exist between theory and practice." |
 |
"The company should be thanked for this initiative, which is attempting to take a nebulous subject and coerce it into a rational, coherent order. Multiple variables make this a difficult topic to 'tame'." |
 |
"The greatest value of this exercise is that it is multidisciplinary - it enables participants to look at elements of pain control from a holistic viewpoint." |
 |
"As the methodology of the workshop is very professional, it encourages you to think of different aspects of pain management. The presence of people from other healthcare disciplines makes the discussion and conclusions more comprehensive. I believe the consensus will be a good basis for further discussions and unification of the language used." |
 |
"It is very useful to share knowledge and experience with people from different specialities. However, when devising these clinical pathways we really need more time to achieve consensus and obtain references." |
 |
"As a hospital nurse, I have problems in seeing things from the general practitioner's perspective. The pathways help patients but the differences between countries can be profound and I query whether it is possible to draw up a pathway for the whole of Europe." |
 |
"One of the most difficult things about developing a pathway is to keep the content simple - specialists tend to become embroiled in details. Unless we keep the overall picture in mind the value of the work diminishes." |
 |
"The problem for the GP is that it is difficult to determine whether a psychological factor is contributing to the patient's pain during a 10-minute consultation. This could be simple depression or an acute problem. The pathway that we develop should help to identify such factors." |
 |
"Pain is difficult to quantify and individual perceptions of pain vary considerably. This makes it difficult to achieve consensus, but equally makes this is a very good initiative which could be helpful for GPs." |
 |
"I enjoy and support the opportunity of meeting with professionals from a variety of cultural and clinical backgrounds to discuss different points of view, based on individual experience. The methodology used is one means of trying to translate intuition into a tangible, practical form without missing scientific based knowledge." |
 |
"Interaction between general practitioners, specialists and palliative care personnel is most valuable, but I feel the scope of this meeting is too large for just two days - the discussions become pressurised and there is insufficient time to think deeply about such complex topics. Maybe if there were some "home preparation work" before the meeting might overcome this problem." |
 |
"It is interesting to see how treatment and practice varies, particularly with respect to existing guidelines. An ideal outcome is not possible - only a compromise solution - but we will get as close to it as we can, and this should be useful for GPs." |
 |
"Cultural differences put an interesting perspective on the way GPs work and the problems they address. Most participants were surprisingly positive about working with psychological support, and we should be able to provide a framework for that." |
 |
"I hope the pathway is a mean for GPs to help control pain as much as possible. GPs should also appreciate that not all cancer pain is controllable and that there are specialists to whom patients can be referred for pain control." |
 |
"It is important to keep pain treatment firmly on the agenda because oncologists are currently somewhat overwhelmed by numerous new developments in other fields of antineoplastic therapy. Also, communication about pain and symptoms should be discussed and taught with more emphasis during clinical training and continuing medical education (CME)." |
 |
"Hard work! There are good people from different specialities here, but some of the subjects really need more time for the consensus to be valuable." |
 |
"The form by which agreement is reached is inconsistent, which could be a potential problem. Although the initiative is a very good idea for GPs, as they are the first line physicians, it could be affected by differences between individual countries." |
Dr. Mag. Klaudia Dsubanko-Obermayr
