Implementation of Nurse-guided Web-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Pain Management

The primary objective of this application is to test the feasibility of a care model where clinic nurses play a vital role in promoting the adoption of web-based CBT in the ambulatory medical setting. Participants (n=60) in the primary care and rheumatology clinics will be randomized to one of 2 arms: (1) 6 regular telephone contacts, vs. (2) 6 computer generated email reminders (control arm) over an 8-week period. To enhance participants' motivation to engage in the web-based CBT, nurses will use motivational interviewing technique. The investigators will use outcome measures including the number of completed web-based learning modules, amount of time spent by the nurses on study-related and non-study related phone calls, health care use, and clinical variables. Our proposed line of research is significant because it will potentially make CBT, a significantly underutilized treatment modality, potentially more affordable and accessible. If nurse guided web-based CBT can be shown to be effective and implementable, Wake Baptist Health System can potentially leverage web-based CBT as one component in a multidisciplinary pain management program to prospective employers in North Carolina. Wake Baptist may also develop its own web-based CBT for commercial use.