COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP)

NCT ID: NCT05492903

Last Updated: 2025-11-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 140 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-08-21
• Study Completion Date: 2026-09-30

Brief Summary

Home care workers (HCWs) are at-risk for chronic pain and associated problems, including emotional distress, opioid use and misuse, and work-related disability. To address these issues, the proposed study will adapt an established peer-led and supportive group program to address the needs of HCWs with chronic pain. The new program, named COMPASS for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP), will integrate work-based injury protections with pain education and cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies for pain self-management in order to reduce pain interference with HCWs' work and life, and advance their safety, health, and well-being.

Detailed Description

Organizational intervention research can be all breakthrough with no follow-through. Few effective interventions developed by scientists are widely adopted in practice. To address this research-to-practice gap and address a socially important problem, the investigators will translate their established and disseminated COMPASS (COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support) intervention to address the needs of home care workers (HCWs) with chronic pain. The burden of injuries and pain is great among HCWs, which places them at-risk for emotional distress, opioid use/misuse, and work-related disability. Moreover, HCWs are predominantly low income, middle aged women. Between 1999 and 2015 middle-aged women experienced a 471% increase in prescription opioid-related overdoses. COMPASS is a peer-led and scripted group curriculum that produced many significant impacts on meaningful outcomes for HCWs in a randomized controlled trial (Cohen's d range = .45 to .84), including increased safety communication with clients and hazard correction in homes. COMPASS was subsequently adopted by the Oregon Home Care Commission, and is currently offered statewide as a paid training course to publicly funded HCWs. While these are exceptional research-to-practice impacts, the original curriculum did not directly address chronic pain, and resulted in only small non-significant reductions in pain severity. The investigators also found that HCWs with pain-related limitations at baseline made significant safety changes, but experienced less benefit from the intervention than workers without limitations. An added barrier is that protective low-tech ergonomic tools (e.g., slide boards, transfer belts) are typically not funded by insurance. The investigators' qualitative research revealed that low-wage HCWs are often forced to improvise or do without such tools. In the translation plan, existing COMPASS lessons will be adapted for HCWs with chronic pain, and new lessons from the Pain Survival Guide (co-authored by Dr. Turk, Co-I) will integrate pain education and proven cognitive-behavioral therapy pain self-management strategies. The investigators will also strengthen injury protections by including an online ergonomic assessment and voucher for HCWs to purchase tools. The translated COMPASS for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP) intervention will be evaluated with a cluster randomized waitlist control design. The primary hypothesis is that COMPASS-NP will reduce pain interference with work and life. Secondary outcomes include pain/injury prevention behaviors (e.g., ergonomic tool use), injuries, pain severity, risk for opioid misuse, and worker well-being. Regional implementation and evaluation with partners in Oregon (government), Washington (labor), and Idaho (private sector) will maximize dissemination knowledge and impact. The 5-year project will accomplish 4 aims: 1) Adapt and pilot COMPASS-NP in Oregon; 2) Determine effects of COMPASS-NP across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho; 3) Describe the translation and implementation of COMPASS-NP across partners and systems; and 4) Disseminate COMPASS-NP knowledge, tools, and toolkits.

Conditions

Pain Management; Ergonomics; Wounds and Injuries

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Intervention

Intervention during weeks 0-10 (10 weekly group sessions). Follow-up with no treatment during weeks 11-20.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP)

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

A peer-led and supportive group program (10 weekly sessions) designed to address the needs of HCWs with chronic or elevated pain. The intervention will integrate work-based injury protections with pain education and cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies for pain self-management.

Waitlist Control

Usual practice during weeks 0-10. Intervention during weeks 11-20 (10 weekly group sessions).

Group Type: OTHER

COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP)

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

A peer-led and supportive group program (10 weekly sessions) designed to address the needs of HCWs with chronic or elevated pain. The intervention will integrate work-based injury protections with pain education and cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies for pain self-management.

Interventions

COMmunity of Practice And Safety Support for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP)

A peer-led and supportive group program (10 weekly sessions) designed to address the needs of HCWs with chronic or elevated pain. The intervention will integrate work-based injury protections with pain education and cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies for pain self-management.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 18 years (adults)
• Employed as a home care worker
• Has chronic pain (pain lasting 3+ months and > 4 average intensity)
• The presence of pain interference with work (response of 'agree' or 'strongly agree' on single-item)
• Currently working 4 hours or more per week
• Access to the internet with a video capable device (e.g., smart phone, tablet, or computer)

Exclusion Criteria

• Prior exposure to the original COMPASS program
• Experiencing a surgery in the prior 6 months
• Current pregnancy or intention to become pregnant during the study period.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Oregon Health and Science University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Ryan Olson

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Oregon Health & Science University

Portland, Oregon, United States

Countries

United States

References

Olson R, Hess JA, Turk D, Marino M, Greenspan L, Alley L, Donovan C, Rice SPM. COMMunity of Practice And Safety Support for Navigating Pain (COMPASS-NP): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial with home care workers. Trials. 2023 Apr 10;24(1):264. doi: 10.1186/s13063-023-07149-8.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37038235 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

e20412

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id