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Coping with Pain in the Face of Healthcare Injustice in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease

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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To evaluate the pain coping strategies of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) who experience healthcare injustice from either physicians or nurses during medical visits for pain management. It is unknown how patients’ coping with pain relates to their experiences of healthcare injustice from physicians or nurses. This descriptive comparative study included adult outpatients with SCD who completed the PAINReportIt®, Healthcare Justice Questionnaire©, and Coping Strategies Questionnaire-SCD. Data were analyzed using independent t tests. Frequent coping strategies of patients who experienced healthcare justice from physicians were praying-hoping and from nurses were praying-hoping, calming self-statements, diverting attention, and increasing behavioral activity. In contrast, frequent coping strategies of patients who experienced healthcare injustice from physicians were catastrophizing and isolation and from nurses were isolation. Patients who experienced healthcare justice used different sets of pain coping strategies than those who experienced healthcare injustice during medical visits for pain management.

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Acknowledgments

This publication was made possible by Grant Nos. 1R01HL078536 and 1U54HL090513 from the National Institutes of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. The final peer-reviewed manuscript is subject to the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy. The authors thank the patients with sickle cell disease for participating in this study, the staff at the University of Illinois Hospital Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center for their support of the study, and Harriett Wittert and Jesus Carrasco, for their assistance with data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, College of Nursing, University of Florida, 1225 Center Drive, Room 3221, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA

    Miriam O. Ezenwa, Yingwei Yao & Diana J. Wilkie

  2. College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Robert E. Molokie

  3. Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Cancer Center and Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Zaijie Jim Wang

  4. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Molly W. Mandernach

  5. Department of Biobehavioral Health Science (MC 802), College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Marie L. Suarez

Authors
  1. Miriam O. Ezenwa
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  2. Yingwei Yao
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  3. Robert E. Molokie
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  4. Zaijie Jim Wang
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  5. Molly W. Mandernach
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  6. Marie L. Suarez
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  7. Diana J. Wilkie
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Miriam O. Ezenwa.

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Conflict of interest

We have no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article interest except Drs. Molokie and Wilkie received a grant from Pfizer for an unrelated study and Dr. Wilkie is Chairman and Founder of eNURSING llc.

Ethical Approval

The Institutional Review Board of an urban public university in Illinois approved the study prior to commencement. Each patient signed a written informed consent form. The study complied with ethical standards regarding research involving human subjects.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

“This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.” This article involves studies conducted with human participants. As stated above, the research protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of an urban public university in Illinois.

Informed Consent

“Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.”

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Ezenwa, M.O., Yao, Y., Molokie, R.E. et al. Coping with Pain in the Face of Healthcare Injustice in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 1449–1456 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0432-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0432-0

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