Patients' Experiences Participating Within an Interdisciplinary Primary Care Program for Low Back Pain.

Abstract

A common recommendation to improve the management of low back pain (LBP) is the use of interdisciplinary teams. However, many challenges remain in establishing interdisciplinary care, particularly in community-based primary care settings. This study explored patients' experiences with interdisciplinary care for LBP using an applied phenomenological research approach. Semistructured open-ended interviews were conducted with fifteen adults enrolled in a 6-month interdisciplinary LBP program within an integrated care network. The analysis included detailed descriptions of participants' experiences and interpretations by the researchers of the main themes: (i) challenging start-"It's intimidating," (ii) desire for flexibility-"I didn't need as much," (iii) better collaboration-"They are all together," (iv) grasping the pain issue-"They helped," (v) care was responsive to needs and experience-"Always centered on me, not general," (vi) meanings of recovery-"I'm able to function." Participants viewed the interdisciplinary LBP program as the culmination of a long journey toward recovery. The findings identified as important to patients contribute to our understanding of how to optimize patient-centered care for individuals living with chronic pain.