The School of Health & Social Care

Barriers to good pain management: patient, professional and the organisation

Page published 28 February 2011

Bournemouth University (BU) Deputy Dean of the School of Health and Social Care to deliver Professorial Inaugural Lecture on 6 April 2011.

Bournemouth University Professor Eloise Carr will offer solutions to the challenges faced by patients and healthcare professionals to achieving effective pain management when she delivers her Professorial Inaugural Lecture at BU on 6 April, 2011.

A nurse by background, Professor Carr is strongly committed to improving pain management through collaborative practice where professionals can work and learn together to improve patient care.

The lecture, entitled ‘Barriers to good pain management: patient, professional and the organisation’, will reflect her research over 20 years into the many barriers which hinder effective pain management. She will also focus on the extensive work done by clinical teams during the last two decades to improve care which could change this situation.

“Despite the advent of new analgesics and innovative methods of drug delivery pain management in hospitals remains problematic,” says Professor Carr, Deputy Dean of the School of Health and Social Care at Bournemouth University. “Chronic pain - particularly back pain - costs individuals and the government dearly, with estimates of £10 billion in lost work and compensation and £460m in NHS costs.

“The pain and suffering are significant affecting not just individuals but their friends and family profoundly with local and national policies often inadvertently providing a hindrance to good pain management,” she concludes.

Professor Carr has published widely, created educational courses, textbooks and visual materials. Her pain research interests include postoperative pain management, back pain and interprofessional education.

She is a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and in 2006 she was co-opted onto IASP’s International taskforce for Pain Management in Developing Countries and in 2009 IASP’s Education Working group.

She has served on council for the British Pain Society (2007-2010), and currently Chairs the Communications Committee. She was also the founding member of a international Special Interest Group in Pain Education (IASP) and co-chaired the first international pain education conference (IASP Satellite, Toronto 2010).

Where – Bournemouth University Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8EB.

When – Wednesday, 6 April, 2011. Registration and refreshments available from 5pm. The lecture commences at 6pm.

Further details – Entry to the lecture is free but booking is advised. To reserve your, please visit BU Lecture Series 2011.