Background Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex, still poorly understood, and difficult-to-treat chronic pain condition for which many people struggle to find adequate care. Aims This study investigated the research question, “What do people accessing health care services for fibromyalgia perceive as helpful, hindering, and absent but desired?” with the aim of identifying clear, implementable changes for clinical practice. Materials and methods This study used the enhanced critical incident technique (ECIT), a qualitative research method that focuses on helping, hindering, and desired factors, to explore the health care experiences of 14 individuals (12 women and 2 men) diagnosed with FM. Results Using qualitative data analysis, results identified three categories of health care experiences: (1) systemic navigation, including financial and economic security; accessibility, flexibility, and continuity of care; and diversity of treatment options; (2) clinician–patient alliance, including invalidation and prejudice; therapeutic bond; and clinician–patient alignment on treatment plan; and (3) patient self-management strategies, including information-seeking and education, self-advocacy, social supports, symptom management strategies, and other coping strategies. Participants tended to conceptualize their health care concerns as a multilayered systemic problem. Conclusions Participants described a medical system they perceived as poorly equipped to support their needs and tended to invalidate their health concerns. Helping experiences tended to be the result of unique efforts on the part of individual clinicians. Findings emphasize the importance of recognizing the complexities and psychological impact of pain, trusting clinician–patient relationships, multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary care within a biopsychosocial framework, and improved education and awareness around psychosocial aspects of FM and effective management of chronic pain.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a toll on healthcare workers, who have been required to work during times of great challenge and scarcity, as well as risk to themselves, whilst continuing to provide care for others. This desire to alleviate the suffering of others puts healthcare workers at increased risk of compassion fatigue, a traumatic stress response that can develop from supporting others through emotional suffering and trying to alleviate that pain. Increased risk to this large population poses a challenge to career practitioners, who will need effective ways of supporting these workers in healing. This paper discusses conceptualizing compassion fatigue through a career engagement lens, and proposes the uses of the Hope-Centered Model of Career Development as a means of supporting reengagement. Through the reinstallation of hope, feeling of agency and achievement again become possible.
Moral distress (MD) is a problematic experience for healthcare workers, with career engagement implications including burnout, job turnover, and career turnover. Instances of MD have been increasing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening greater problems for the healthcare system. Although a range of interventions have been explored, no evidence-based treatment has been identified. Because of how embedded ethical decision-making is in the healthcare field, it is unlikely that MD will be eradicated; however, it is suggested that MD can be learned from and transformed into moral resilience. Evidence indicates that healthcare workers could benefit from mindfulness-based and emotion regulation skills, alongside values-based and action strategies, to support the development of moral resilience. This article proposes the applicability of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its six core skills—acceptance, cognitive defusion, mindfulness, self-as-context, values, and commitment—to the work of career practitioners as a means of developing moral resilience skills among healthcare workers and supporting career sustainability.
While a high unemployment rate is documented among immigrant young people, research also suggests that they experience success with career decision-making despite challenging circumstances (Hofferth & Moon, 2016). This study explored the career decision-making narratives of nine young people between the ages of 25 and 35 who had come to Canada when they were between the ages of 13 and 17 and who self-define as doing well in their career decision-making. Using a narrative research design, individual narrative accounts were constructed and analyzed using a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The six themes that emerged from participant responses were (a) parental and family influences, (b) networking, making connections, and mentorship, (c) personal and workplace challenges, (d) peer influences, (e) the value of education, internships, and volunteering, and (f) the importance of rewarding, fulfilling work and pursuing one’s passion. Implications for career counselling practice, research, and career theory development are discussed.
There is emerging evidence on the relationship between career outcomes and success in substance use recovery, in that individuals who are gainfully employed are more likely to have positive recovery outcomes, including reduced risk of relapse. Although career interventions for those in recovery exist, no intervention has focused on the intersection of career development and relapse prevention. This article explores a theoretical integration of relapse prevention and social cognitive career theory to increase the self‐efficacy, outcome expectancies, and coping of individuals in recovery, as well as implications and practical applications of this orientation for both career and substance use counselors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.