The presentation of self in everyday young lives with pain: a poetic meta-ethnography.

Abstract

Background: Access to pain relief is a fundamental human right, yet child and adolescent pain can remain unheard and untreated . We aimed to understand and testify to young people's pain experiences.

Methods: This is the first systematic review of qualitative research to present findings as poetry. We followed stages of meta-ethnography, using verbatim poetry to express the findings.

Results: We included 189 studies incorporating 5875 young people with pain across a range of conditions and contexts. Our findings highlight the ambiguity of pain . This ambiguity is exacerbated by unpredictability, absence of diagnosis, and a tangle of bio-psycho-social factors.

Conclusions: Verbatim poetry can help us to imagine what it is like to live in someone else' shoes. Poetry can therefore contribute to compassionate and high-quality care. Future research might explore the role of poetry inmore inclusive research.