Here’s a clinical tip for healthcare professionals:
Did you know that including validation in your interactions with patients presenting with low back pain can make a significant impact? It’s true! Many individuals with low back pain often feel that others doubt the reality of their pain since it’s not visible to the naked eye.
Therefore, providing validation becomes crucial in clinical consultations. Interestingly, healthcare professionals who manage patients with pain have admitted to treating them differently based on whether they have a biomedical diagnosis or not.
To validate your patients, you can engage in validating communication, which involves active listening, summarizing and reflecting on what they’ve shared, and using empathic statements like “that must have been hard” or “I can see you’re going through a lot of pain.” The best part is that incorporating validation doesn’t make the consultation longer.
So, remember to integrate validation into your patient interactions to
support them better in their healthcare journey.
O’Hagan ET, Cashin AG, Traeger AC, McAuley JH. Person -centred education and advice for people with low back pain: Making the best of what we know. Braz J Phys Ther. 2023 Jan Feb;27(1):100478. doi:10.1016/j.bjpt.2022.100478. Epub 2022 Dec 22. PMID: 36657216;PMCID: PMC9868342.