Join Linda Hunter in discussing One Thing she wants pain researchers or clinicians to know. Linda urges clinicians to spend time actively listening, not just to pain symptoms, but to their patient’s goals and desired quality of life. Success lies in a true partnership.
About Linda
Linda Hunter is a semi-retired nurse and has lived with chronic pain for years. She has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, and severe degenerative disc disease. Her journey to diagnosis and treatment options was interesting and challenging – some options helped, some did not. Linda had a double spinal fusion with disc replacement and bone grafting one year ago. She has regained mobility and has been able to resume more activities that allow her to have an enhanced quality of life. Linda is now the CanTrain Clinical Trials Training Program National Stream Coordinator.
Transcript
David Kennedy: What do you think is the one thing that clinicians or researchers need to know about people challenged by pain?
Linda Hunter: It is to listen fully, and listening fully really means giving time. And it’s so hard in this constrained healthcare environment to give time. But I think the more time you give, the better prepared we both are to come up with solutions. So hear my context and hear the context of my story. But listen to my goals, because I think our goals have to be together. I know you want to help me. I know you have my back, and I know you want to support me. But at the same time, I have goals about how I want to live my life. You know, professionally, as a person, quality life, what I want to do, my exercise and all the rest.
For a clinician, I want your expertise, and I want your support, but I want you to have my back, and I want it to be focused on my goals.
It’s a little bit different from researchers… I want to get patients thought of by researchers as more than mere participants in trials. I want them to be true partners and really partnering at that level from blue sky thinking, strategic thinking, what are the research questions, let’s co-write the grant, let’s analyze and gather the information, do whatever together, and let’s get it out there together, and I can really help you implement this.
So the aspects of being a partner that is so important to moving the research forward. Because we know what’s important to us. I know what I want. I know from my different diseases what would make me better and have a better life, and perhaps that would make other people better too. So unless you live with the disease we don’t just have lived experience, I like to say that patients have expert experience. So patients have lived experience. They also have expert experience. So please, let’s listen to this expert experience.
Research would not exist if we didn’t have patients, they are at the core, and they have to be at the core of what we do.
So research that improves quality of life is worth its weight in gold and we can help you get that. So those are the 2 things that I kind of bundle together with words in what clinicians I really want you to focus on, and researchers, what I want you to focus on.
And I love, if you do that, and I would help you any way that I can.
David Kennedy: Fantastic. Thank you so much.