Adolescents' experiences of Help Overcoming Pain Early—A school based person‐centred intervention for adolescents with chronic pain

Abstract

Abstract To illuminate adolescents' experiences of Help Overcoming Pain Early (HOPE), a person‐centred intervention delivered in a school setting by school nurses. Twenty‐one adolescents with chronic pain recruited from secondary school, who had completed the HOPE intervention, were included in the interview study. The HOPE intervention was built on person‐centred ethics and consisted of four meetings between school nurses and adolescents on the subject of stress and pain management. A qualitative method using content analysis with an inductive approach was employed. In the interviews, the adolescents describe how they reclaim their lives with the help of HOPE. They use different strategies and parts of the intervention to move on with their lives. A trustful relationship, as that with the school nurse, was essential to dare to change. The overarching theme summarizes in Becoming myself again and is built up by three sub‐themes: Trust a pillar for growth, Making sense of my life with pain, and Putting myself into the world again. A person‐centred intervention such as HOPE applied in a school context is promising for promoting confidence in adolescents with chronic pain. A trust‐building process emerged, in terms of both the adolescents' trust in the healthcare staff they meet and their confidence in their own ability to handle and influence their situation, which in the long term can promote trust in themselves as a person.

Keywords

• adolescent
• chronic pain
• interview
• school health