Conclusion
pain
Our findings suggest that the STAR Care Pathway is supported by healthcare professionals who delivered it, and that it has the potential to be implemented successfully into practice. At the time of writing, the STAR care pathway has been adopted into usual care at one NHS hospital, and a training package is in development. Healthcare professionals valued the patient-centred nature of the care pathway and its use in identification of the nature of chronic post-surgical pain. Extended Scope Practitioners delivering the pathway felt it enabled them to refer patients to appropriate services. Wider learning from this study includes the importance of a collective understanding to support the successful implementation of an intervention. Implementation of an intervention is more likely to be successful if healthcare professionals—who may not be delivering the intervention but who support affected patients—are aware of and engaged with the intervention.