Children in chronic pain: Promoting pediatric patientsʹ symptom accounts in tertiary care

This paper examines how clinicians promote pediatric patientsʹ symptom accounts at the beginning of visits in three pediatric tertiary care clinics at a university hospital in the United States: pain, gastroenterology and neurology. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected for 69 patient–parent pairs, including videotaped intake visits. Two forms of child account promotion, together with their corresponding distribution across clinics, were identified: (1) Epistemic prefaces were used to upgrade the patientʹs epistemic status and to establish the child as primary informant; and, (2) non-focused questioning was used to permit children latitude in the formulation of symptoms and experiences. In general, epistemic prefaces were characteristic of the gastroenterology and neurology visits, while non-focused questioning was found overwhelmingly in the pain encounters.