The Role of Health Coaching in Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacy Practice

Abstract

Whole-person care is essential in the management of patients with chronic pain and serious illness. Pain, suffering, and comfort do not fall under typical chronic disease management and cannot be boxed nicely into algorithms of evidence-focused, biomarker-based goal achievement like hypertension or diabetes. Current therapies, including surgical, interventional, and analgesic modalities may be only marginally effective, and have brought with them questionable practices, high cost, and an opioid epidemic. Patient-focused goals are gaining favor, and exploration of methods to enhance this approach include health coaching. In the setting of pain management, this would include pain coaching. This commentary will highlight the role of health coaching in the setting of chronic disease and pain management, and the pharmacists’ qualifications and potential contributions to health and pain coaching.

Keywords:

• Pain management
• health coaching
• motivational interviewing
• pain coaching

Acknowledgment

Dr. Kral would like to acknowledge Ms. Becky Curtis for her assistance and courage in charting a new course for pain management in the area of health coaching.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.