Dear Editor,

Thank you for the article: The Home Healthcare Nurse: A Concept Analysis in the July/Aug issue of Home Healthcare Now (HHN). This is a timely article. I hope the author continues to share her knowledge with HHN readers. As a board member of the International Home Care Nurses Organization (IHCNO), I appreciated that she included the IHCNO definition of home care nurse and noted it provides a much broader and more comprehensive definition of the term home care nurses as nurses who provide care to acute and chronically ill patient in the home, regardless of age, incorporating a wide range of home-based models of care. International nurses shared multiple definitions and models used by the professionals who provide care in the home.

I invite readers to visit http://www.IHCNO.org and sign-up to participate in the online network of international home care nurses. I invite all nurses to volunteer and share their expertise and experiences through participation in one of the committees. Please email me for more information.

Best wishes,

Marilyn Harris

[email protected]

8/22/21

NIH-funded study suggests a single skills-based session on pain management packs a punch

Chronic low-back pain. (CLBP) is the most common chronic pain in the United States. Though the use of surgery and pharmaceutical interventions for CLBP is rising, the evidence has led to pain education and CBT being recommended as first-line treatments. A research team at Stanford University School of Medicine recruited 263 adults who experienced CLBP for at least six months, with an average pain intensity of 4/10 or greater, and randomized them to three. The 87 patients randomized to the empowered relief group participated in a single, two-hour pain relief skill-building class (pain education, mindfulness principles, and self-regulatory skills like relaxation, cognitive reframing, and self-soothing). The 88 patients in the CBT group participated in eight two-hour classes in pain management education and CBT skill building. Finally, 88 patients in the education group participated in a single two-hour class about back health, which was designed to match the empowered relief class in duration, structure, format, and class site. The primary outcome was measured in differences in the Pain Catastrophizing Score three months after treatment. Pain catastrophizing can lead to increased attention to pain and feelings of helplessness or being out of control. The outcomes in the empowered relief group were on par with the CBT group (1.39, 97.5% Confidence Interval (CI)), while researchers found that both CBT and empowered relief were superior to the health education session (-7.29, 95% CI and -5.90, 95% CI, respectively).