The purpose of this research brief is to assess a nurse-led, patient-centered counseling protocol to encourage patients to self-manage pain after spine surgery.

Background

• Patients with significant back pain often have surgery to manage their pain when other interventions fail.
• Surgical interventions inherently shift the patient from having an active role to having a passive role in his or her care.
• Pain and function are affected by the level of patients’ motivation and engagement in pain self-management.
• It can be challenging to motivate patients to remain actively engaged in their care.
• Clinicians can motivate patients through their face-to-face encounters.

Key Findings

• There were no significant differences between control and intervention groups on disability, activity levels, or depression. However, patients responded positively to the intervention and staff was motivated to incorporate it into clinical use.
• The intervention has been introduced into wider health system clinic routine for management of chronic pain and disseminated to clinicians via a web-based video format.

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