Teaching communication and stress management skills to junior physicians dealing with cancer patients: a Belgian Interuniversity Curriculum.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Ineffective physicians' communication skills have detrimental consequences for patients and their relatives, such as insufficient detection of psychological disturbances, dissatisfaction with care, poor compliance, and increased risks of litigation for malpractice. These ineffective communication skills also contribute to everyday stress, lack of job satisfaction, and burnout among physicians. Literature shows that communication skills training programs may significantly improve physicians' key communication skills, contributing to improvements in patients' satisfaction with care and physicians' professional satisfaction. This paper describes a Belgian Interuniversity Curriculum (BIC) theoretical roots, principles, and techniques developed for junior physicians specializing in various disciplines dealing with cancer patients.

CURRICULUM DESCRIPTION:
The 40-h training focuses on two domains:
stress management skills and communication skills with cancer patients and their relatives. The teaching method is learner-centered and includes a cognitive, behavioral, and affective approach. The cognitive approach aims to improve physicians' knowledge and skills on the two domains cited. The behavioral approach offers learners the opportunity to practice these appropriate skills through practical exercises and role plays. The affective approach allows participants to express attitudes and feelings that communicating about difficult issues evoke. Such an intensive course seems to be necessary to facilitate the transfer of learned skills in clinical practice.

CONCLUSIONS:
The BIC is the first attempt to bring together a stress management training course and a communication training course that could lead not only to communication skills improvements but also to burnout prevention.

This information was obtained from the public area of Pubmed, part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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Author information

First Name	LastName	Initials
Isabelle	Bragard	I
Darius	Razavi	D
Serge	Marchal	S
Isabelle	Merckaert	I
Nicole	Delvaux	N
Yves	Libert	Y
Christine	Reynaert	C
Jacques	Boniver	J
Jean	Klastersky	J
Pierre	Scalliet	P
Anne-Marie	Etienne	AM

Affiliation: Faculté des Sciences Psychologiques et de l'Education, Université de Liège, Belgium.

Grants:

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (Support Care Cancer).

Reference: 2006-May; vol 14 (issue 5) : pp 454-61

Language: eng

PMID: 16418828 (status: MEDLINE) (last retrieval date: 12/14/2007)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adaptation, Psychological
Belgium
Communication
Competency-Based Education
Curriculum
Education, Medical, Graduate - methods
Faculty, Medical
Humans

Neoplasms - psychology; therapy
Physician-Patient Relations
Professional-Family Relations
Program Development
Program Evaluation
Schools, Medical
Stress, Psychological - prevention & control
Teaching - methods

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