Aches, Pains, and Secondary Gains

All types of healthcare professionals may encounter challenges and obstacles to patient outcomes despite providing optimized treatment plans and state-of-the-art care. These obstacles may come from a variety of barriers including the existence of secondary gains, low patient motivation, misalignment of goals, and miscommunication. This course will discuss secondary gains and define and provide examples of empirically supported clinical pearls to improving outcomes. We will discuss the use of motivational interviewing techniques to match treatment to patient readiness to change; a research review of medical communication and pearls to improve communication; the use of strategies to improve patient adherence and self-efficacy; and the encouragement of an internal locus of control. In addition to improving outcomes, these strategies are proven to reduce negative provider outcomes including burn-out, negative feedback, and legal issues such as malpractice. The strategies reviewed will lead to improved satisfaction for patients and providers alike. (Recorded at PAINWeek 2016)