Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October Learn More or Try it out now. Multiday courses can teach oncologists skills to handle emotion; however, such workshops are long and costly.
To test whether a brief, computerized intervention improves oncologist responses to patient expressions of negative emotion. Randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial stratified by site, sex, and oncologic specialty. Oncologists were randomly assigned to receive a communication lecture or the lecture plus a tailored CD-ROM. Oncology clinics at a comprehensive cancer center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and a comprehensive cancer center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Oncologists in the intervention group used more empathic statements relative risk, 1. Patients of intervention oncologists reported greater trust in their oncologists than did patients of control oncologists estimated mean difference, 0. There was no significant difference in perceptions of communication skills. Long-term effects were not examined. The findings may not be generalizable outside of academic medical centers. Patients with advanced cancer have considerable distress 1 - 3.
In addition to experiencing physical symptoms, they are frequently depressed 4 , struggle with altered social roles, and live with anxiety 5. Oncologists can manage patient distress by recognizing and empathizing with patient concerns, which can lead to increases in satisfaction, adherence to treatment, and quality of life 6 , 7. Oncologists frequently miss opportunities to respond to patient emotion and may instead exhibit behaviors that block feelings and create emotional distance 8 , 9.
Courses for trainees and attending clinicians have been recently developed to address these shortcomings 10 - These multiday courses incorporate skills training, small-group practice with simulated patients, observation, and feedback Such courses are effective 16 but are often time- and cost-prohibitive. We designed a computerized, interactive, tailored intervention that meets these requirements. We report the results of a randomized, controlled trial that tested the effectiveness of this intervention in improving oncologist behavior.
