Publications by authors named "Aurore Lienard"
Purpose: This study reports the short- and mid-term benefits of an eight-session emotion and self-regulation group intervention ecologically boosted through daily app-based prompts. The intervention was designed for breast cancer patients in the early survivorship period meeting criteria for clinical levels of psychological symptoms.
Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to the immediate intervention arm (n = 61; intervention received immediately) or to the delayed intervention arm (n = 59; intervention received 5 months later).
Objective: Cancer-related communication is critical for parents' and children's adaptation to the disease. This randomized pilot study was conducted to test the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a 4-session intervention designed to improve parents' communication.
Methods: A 4-session intervention was developed to aid parents to support their children through more open/adapted communication.
Purpose Of Review: When a parent is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family is impacted. Patients with cancer and co-parents may no longer feel able to fulfill their parenting roles. The aims of this article are to describe interventions designed to support parenting in the oncological context and to make suggestions for the development and assessment of such interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Cancer-related communication is critical for patients' and caregivers' adaptation to illness. This randomized pilot study was conducted to test the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a specific dyadic intervention to improve communication.
Methods: A four weekly-session intervention was developed to reinforce cancer-related patient-caregiver communication.
Objectives: This descriptive study assesses how physicians' decisional conflict influences their ability to address treatment outcomes (TOs) in a decision-making encounter with an advanced-stage cancer simulated patient (SP).
Methods: Physicians (N = 138) performed a decision-making encounter with the SP trained to ask for TOs information. The physicians' decisional conflict regarding patients' cancer treatments in general was assessed with the General Decisional Conflict Scale (Gen-DCS).
Objective: Our first objective was to develop the Multi-Dimensional analysis of Patient Outcome Predictions (MD.POP), an interaction analysis system that assesses how HCPs discuss precisely and exclusively patient outcomes during medical encounters. The second objective was to study its interrater reliability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although previous studies have reported the efficacy of communication skills training (CST) programs, specific training addressing communication about uncertainty and hope in oncology has not yet been studied. This paper describes the study protocol of a randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of a CST program aimed at improving physician ability to communicate about uncertainty and hope in encounters with cancer patients.
Methods/design: Physician participants will be randomly assigned in groups (n = 3/group) to a 30-h CST program (experimental group) or to a waiting list (control group).
Objectives: Physicians' characteristics that influence their communication performance (CP) in decision-making encounters have been rarely studied. In this longitudinal study, predictors of physicians' CP were investigated with a simulated advanced-stage cancer patient.
Methods: Physicians (n=85) performed a decision-making encounter with a simulated patient (SP).
Objective: Despite the well-known negative impacts of cancer and anticancer therapies on cognitive performance, little is known about the cognitive compensatory processes of older patients with cancer. This study was designed to investigate the cognitive compensatory processes of older, clinically fit patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods: We assessed 89 consecutive patients (age ≥ 65 y) without severe cognitive impairment and 89 age-, sex-, and education level-matched healthy controls.
Objective: To compare in a multicenter randomized controlled trial the benefits in terms of anxiety regulation of a 15-session single-component group intervention (SGI) based on support with those of a 15-session multiple-component structured manualized group intervention (MGI) combining support with cognitive-behavioral and hypnosis components.
Methods: Patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer were randomly assigned at the beginning of the survivorship period to the SGI (n = 83) or MGI (n = 87). Anxiety regulation was assessed, before and after group interventions, through an anxiety regulation task designed to assess their ability to regulate anxiety psychologically (anxiety levels) and physiologically (heart rates).
Background And Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a 38-h communication skills training program designed for multidisciplinary radiotherapy teams.
Materials And Methods: Four radiotherapy teams were randomly assigned to a training program or to a waiting list. Assessments were scheduled at baseline (T1) and then after the training was completed or four months later (T2), respectively.
Objective: Although cancer patients frequently experience self-perceived burden to others, this perception has not been enough studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of self-perceived burden to the primary caregiver (SPB-PC) and associated factors in an older patient population with hematologic malignancies at the time of chemotherapy initiation.
Methods: In total, 166 consecutive patients with hematologic malignancies aged ≥65 years were recruited at the time of chemotherapy initiation.
Purpose: This study assessed the efficacy of a 38-hour communication skills training program designed to train a multidisciplinary radiotherapy team.
Methods: Four radiotherapy teams were randomly assigned to a training program or a waiting list. Assessments were scheduled at baseline and after training for the training group and at baseline and 4 months later for the waiting list group.
Background And Purpose: Patients may experience clinically relevant anxiety at their first radiotherapy (RT) sessions. To date, studies have not investigated during/around the RT simulation the key communication and communication-related predictors of this clinically relevant anxiety.
Material And Methods: Breast cancer patients (n=227) completed visual analog scale (VAS) assessments of anxiety before and after their first RT sessions.
Purpose: To our knowledge, no study has specifically assessed the time course of anxiety during radiotherapy (RT). The objective of this study was to assess anxiety time courses in patients with non-metastatic breast cancer.
Material And Methods: This multicenter, descriptive longitudinal study included 213 consecutive patients with breast cancer who completed visual analog scales (VASs) assessing state anxiety before and after the RT simulation and the first and last five RT sessions.
Background And Purpose: Optimizing communication between radiotherapy team members and patients and between colleagues requires training. This study applies a randomized controlled design to assess the efficacy of a 38-h communication skills training program.
Material And Methods: Four radiotherapy teams were randomly assigned either to a training program or to a waiting list.
Objective: Breaking bad news (BBN) is a complex task which involves dealing cognitively with different relevant dimensions and a challenging task which involves dealing with intense emotional contents. No study however has yet assessed in a randomized controlled trial design the effect of a communication skills training on residents' physiological arousal during a BBN task.
Methods: Residents' physiological arousal was measured, in a randomized controlled trial design, by heart rate and salivary cortisol before, during and after a BBN simulated task.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate residents' characteristics associated with their performance in detecting patients' distress (detection performance).
Methods: Residents' detection performance was assessed in a clinical round. A mean detection performance score was calculated for each resident by comparing residents' rating of patients' distress (VAS) with patients' reported distress (HADS).
Background And Purpose: Communication with patients is a core clinical skill in medicine that can be acquired through communication skills training. Meanwhile, the importance of transfer of communication skills to the workplace has not been sufficiently studied. This study aims to assess the efficacy of a 40-hour training program designed to improve patients' satisfaction and residents' communication skills during their daily clinical rounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are few studies which have investigated variables associated with the development of burnout among residents working with cancer patients. The aim of this study is to identify variables leading to residents' burnout in order to develop effective interventions. Burnout was assessed with Maslach Burnout Inventory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: No study has yet assessed the impact of physicians' skills acquisition after a communication skills training program on changes in patients' and relatives' anxiety following a three-person medical consultation. This study aimed at comparing, in a randomized study, the impact, on patients' and relatives' anxiety, of a basic communication skills training program and the same program consolidated by consolidation workshops and at investigating physicians' communication variables associated with patients' and relatives' anxiety.
Methods: Consultations with a cancer patient and a relative were recorded and analyzed by the Cancer Research Campaign Workshop Evaluation Manual.