Healthcare professionals' experiences and perspectives of team-based interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation with immigrants requiring an interpreter. A qualitative study.

The informants' frustration and challenges when working with a new group of patients, vulnerable and different in their preconceptions, led to new solutions in working methods and approaches. When starting a pain rehabilitation programme for culturally diverse patients, it is important to consider the rehabilitation team's need for additional time and support.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONHealthcare professionals who encounter immigrants with chronic pain need resources to develop their own skills in order to handle complex ethical questions as the patients represent a vulnerable patient group with many low status identitiesIn order to adapt rehabilitation programmes to patient groups with different languages and pre-understandings of chronic pain, there is a need for a team with specific qualities, i.e., close cooperation, an innovative atmosphere, time and also support from expertsFor appropriate language interpretation it is important to have a professional interpreter and a healthcare professional who are aware of and adopt the rules, possibilities and restrictions of interpretationThe rehabilitation of patients in need of language interpretation needs more time and organisation compared to the rehabilitation of patients who speak the national language.