A Representational Approach to Patient Education

Purpose: To describe the theoretical basis for a representational approach to patient education and the application of this approach to the development, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of a representational intervention for pain management. Organizing Construct: Leventhal's common sense model (CSM) was a guide for this approach to patient education. The CSM is based on the idea that people have common sense beliefs, or representations, that guide how they cope with health problems. Theoretically based interventions derived from the CSM have not been reported. Methods: Steps included: (a) designing a general approach to educational interventions, centered on illness representations; (b) specifying an intervention (RIDPAIN) to facilitate coping with cancer pain; (c) pilot‐testing and revising the intervention; and (d) testing feasibility and acceptability of the intervention with 61 patients in a Midwestern American city. Findings: The RIDPAIN intervention was useful in eliciting misconceptions of pain and pain management from patients experiencing cancer pain. Many patients found RIDPAIN to be meaningful and useful, and they perceived it to have an effect on pain‐related beliefs and behaviors. Conclusions: This theory‐driven approach should be effective and widely applicable because it includes patients as active participants in all phases of the learning continuum, from information acquisition to behavior change.