To my Chronic Illness Medical Team…
It was very therapeutic for me to write a guest blog post for CreakyJoints, a patient advocacy and education site that focuses on arthritis and related conditions. To my chronic illness medical team is my love letter to the often unsung heroes in the medical profession: providers who care for patients like me who have chronic, complex, invisible illnesses. I am so fortunate to have had dozens of compassionate, caring providers during my 16 years with rheumatoid arthritis. I hope to inspire other providers to go into some of the less popular specialties such as pediatric rheumatology, where there are currently some shortages nation-wide. You won’t have the most straightforward patients,…
The Role of Facebook Communities in Social Participation for Persons with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Content Analysis
Research overview & summary My colleague Kristin Jones, OTR/L and I conducted the following qualitative research. It details the most frequent topics of conversation for persons with rheumatoid arthritis who engage in disease-specific Facebook groups. My experiences as a patient participating in these groups inspired this research. In order to objectively assess the communication content of these social media groups, Ms. Jones and I performed the data analysis seen below in the data overview section. The poster is pasted below and can also be found at SlideShare. Research poster Significant Findings 1. The majority of Facebook group posts served to provide information or support. Information was provided most often in the form of advice…