Workshop with the doctors

[nari]

Last Wednesday I attended the first of four workshops to be held in medical centres to demonstrate how we assess and treat at the pain clinic.
It was organised and run by a rep from a drug company, and five of us; 2 PTs, the pain specialist, a RN and a psychologist, were squashed into a tiny room to talk first, and then take turns at assessing a patient.
What struck me was that the GPs (about 10) were only interested in the drug management, which is their primary focus for persistent pain people.
Their impressions about the philosophy of the clinic were way off beam -they thought the primary focus was on drugs and drug prescription; so we set that right. Yet they only asked questions which were relevant to their terms of reference; which I suppose is OK, but I had hoped for more interest in non-medical roles.
At least they didn't fall asleep...

The next one we will be more avant-garde, and pose a few questions to them, to make it more verbally interactive.
The main problem we find with the doctors are their perceptions of what we do, because of course, they are left with the patients for whom nothing was gained in terms of pain management.
It's rather like us as PTs - we see those who have fallen out of the system, or the system has failed them, and we can get a bit jaundiced..

All in all, a good day.


nari

[Diane]

At least you gave it a good shot! Graded exposure works for everything.

Lorimer was here on Wednesday night. I was riveted the whole 4 hours. His ability to hold the attention of a large crowd is increasing! I think he must have taken acting lessons, or a workshop in how to be a standup comic, or something. His delivery is well-paced, funny, lots of relaxing moments to give the synapses a rest while he talks about little vignettes from his own life, lots of laughs. He turned the whole room into a dorsal root ganglion, he was an ascending neuron, a volunteer from the audience was a peripheral nocioceptor. I finally got what the DRG is and does. It has been through graded exposure, to him!
:),
Diane

[bernard]

Hi All,

I missed that thread!
I agree with you Nari, the majority of Gps are only interested by drugs because they are asked by their patients. Patients want quick fixes and are believing that drugs are an important thing for pain relieving. Very Cartesian but I'm certain that drug companies are very interested in that way of thinking.

Diane,
Some of us have a chance to met Lorimer and many other may wait! France is not a very renown place for such knowledge. (We are stuck in 1700 with Descartes). But I'm trying to do my best for my colleagues (without success for the moment).