Revision of the Advanced Cancer Patients' Distress Scale (ACPDS): a mixed-methods study among palliative patients and healthcare professionals in Germany.

Objectives: To revise the 37-item Advanced Cancer Patients' Distress Scale (ACPDS) regarding its content, comprehensibility, applicability, and relevance by healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients in order to enhance an existing instrument that is appropriate for the needs of patients with advanced cancer admitted to palliative care.

Design: A preliminary revision of items regarding psychometric indices and relevance to initially shorten the scale, complemented by cognitive interviews with patients combining think-aloud and verbal-probe techniques and an HCP focus group on the detected remaining items. Interviews and the focus group were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using MAXQDA.

Effect of a One-Time Communication Training Session on Dental Students' Self-Efficacy Expectancy.

An implementation of training units that provide evidence for improving students' communication skills in the dental curriculum is now more than ever of utmost importance. This study aimed to investigate how students assess their skills after communication training and whether this training also increased students' self-efficacy expectancy. A total of 32 male and 71 female students with a mean age of 25.

Colposcopy non-attendance following an abnormal cervical cancer screening result: a prospective population-based cohort study.

Background: A considerable proportion of cervical cancer diagnoses in high-income countries are due to lack of timely follow-up of an abnormal screening result. We estimated colposcopy non-attendance, examined the potential factors associated and described non-attendance reasons in a population-based screening study.

Methods: Data from the MARZY prospective cohort study were analysed.

Anxiety is associated with unfulfilled information needs and pain at the informed consent consultation of spine surgery patients: a longitudinal study.

Purpose: Meeting the information needs of patients adequately is of high importance in informed consent consultations in surgery. However, information needs often remain unmet in the informed consent consultation. The aim of this study was to assess anxiety and pain in relation to the patients' information needs fulfillment perioperatively.

Development and testing of a summative video-based e-examination in relation to an OSCE for measuring communication-related factual and procedural knowledge of medical students.

In the context of educating medical students, testing of competence in medical communication is carried out primarily with the Objective Structured Clinical Examination [1]. This makes it possible to assess practical performance, but it is resource-intensive and has a negative impact on test quality. The project "Digital test tool for measuring communication skills in medical studies" (digiRole) was funded by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and its objective was to develop digital formats as electronic versions of an OSCE in order to test the communication competency of medical students.

Evaluation of a digitized physician-patient-communication course evaluated by preclinical medical students: a replacement for classroom education?

The limitations in teaching resulting from the Covid-19 epidemic were the rational for transferring the course in Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology (doctor-patient communication) into an asynchronous e-learning course. For this purpose, ten exercises were developed to be downloaded by the students and the solutions returned to the course lecturer on a weekly basis. In addition, two students individually recorded via video one of eight doctor-patient exercise conversations, which were then evaluated by four other students and the respective lecturer.

Fatigue in survivors of malignant melanoma and its determinants: a register-based cohort study.

Purpose: Fatigue has found increasing attention as a debilitating and lasting condition of cancer patients. However, it has remained unclear to what degree long-term survivors of malignant melanoma suffer from fatigue. Therefore, this study aimed to determine fatigue and its link with quality of life, aftercare behavior, and mental and physical symptoms among melanoma survivors.

Information needs of patients in spine surgery: development of a question prompt list to guide informed consent consultations.

Background Context: Informed consent is mandatory before surgery and fundamental in the physician-patient interaction. However, communication is sometimes suboptimal.

Purpose: The objective was to develop a question prompt list (QPL) for patients undergoing spine surgery (spinal neurosurgery-QPL, "SN-QPL") to encourage them to acquire information during the informed consent consultation (ICC) and assess patients' information needs.

High psychosocial burden in relatives of malignant brain tumor patients.

Objective: Not only tumor patients suffer enormously from their disease, also the caregivers are massively affected by the disease of their relatives. In this study, we investigate the psychological burden in caregivers of outpatient malignant brain tumor patients.

Patients And Methods: Fifty caregivers of patients with primary malignant brain tumors were included in our study.

Determinants of illness-specific social support and its relation to distress in long-term melanoma survivors.

Background: Social support is considered to be one of the most important resources for coping with cancer. However, social interactions may also be detrimental, e. g.

Recruiting former melanoma patients via hospitals in comparison to office-based dermatologists in a register-based cohort study that required indirect contact.

Background: There are detailed reviews about different recruitment strategies, but not with regard to differences between recruitment of hospital-based versus office-based physicians. Within this study, the two different recruitment schemes are compared. Advantages and disadvantages of different ways of recruitment in registry-based studies are discussed.

[Competence-based catalogue of learning objectives for conducting medical consultations].

Issue: In 2012 the German medical licensure regulations (Approbationsordnung) made teaching and assessing the conduction of medical consultations a mandatory part of medical education. A catalogue of learning objectives (LO) based on existing references was developed to assist medical schools in meeting this requirement.

Methods: A body of relevant material was compiled using literature research and surveying experts.

Psychosocial Care Needs of Melanoma Survivors: Are They Being Met?

Patients who have survived malignant melanoma for more than five years may lack the opportunity to talk about their burden. As a consequence their psychosocial care needs remain undetected and available supportive interventions may not be utilised. Therefore, the psychosocial burden of this patient group needs to be assessed using specific screening instruments.

Depression, anxiety and quality of life in long-term survivors of malignant melanoma: a register-based cohort study.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine anxiety and depression, quality of life, and their determinants in long-term survivors of malignant melanoma.

Methods: In a state cancer registry a cohort of survivors of malignant melanoma was contacted via the physician registered. Of 1302 contactable patients, 689 (52.

[Question prompt list for premedication consultation : Patient-oriented information on anesthesia].

Background: The anesthesia premedication consultation is an obligatory procedure prior to any upcoming surgery. It is the anesthesiologist's responsibility to collect all necessary information regarding the patient's medical condition to decide on the appropriate narcosis and to ensure that the patient comprehends the anesthesia procedure and its effects.

Aim: Information needs of patients regarding anesthesia are often not adequately fulfilled.

A questionnaire assessing women's care needs related to gynaecological cancer screening: development of the GCSCNS.

Objective: To identify women's care needs concerning cancer screening and to develop an instrument suitable for measuring them--the Gynaecological Cancer Screening Care Needs Scale (GCSCNS). We hypothesized that it is possible: (a) to explore care needs and to develop reliable subscales of them, (b) to rank these needs in order of importance, and (c) to detect determinants of these needs (age, social status, marital status, health locus of control) and these need scores.

Study Design: A questionnaire was developed based on the relevant literature, interviews conducted with gynaecological patients, and a consultation with 18 experts.

Assessing somatic, psychosocial, and spiritual distress of patients with advanced cancer: development of the Advanced Cancer Patients' Distress Scale.

Objective: For adequate distress assessment in palliative care, we developed a screening evaluation tool.

Methods: Proven methods of scale construction led to a 53-item pilot form of the Advanced Cancer Patients' Distress Scale (ACPDS). We used Hornheide Questionnaire (HQ), Palliative Outcome Scale (POS), and Minimal Documentation System (MIDOS) for validation.

Dying in Germany--unfulfilled needs of relatives in different care settings.

Context: The integration of family members in the dying process and the recognition of their special needs are important factors for the development of high-quality palliative care.

Objectives: This study aimed to explore important needs and personal experiences of relatives at the end of life, and to detect differences in these needs and experiences for various care settings.

Methods: Our cross-sectional survey was based on a random sampling of 5000 inhabitants of Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) who died between May 25 and August 24, 2008.

[Assessment of patient care needs in general practice].

Objective: In the German health system general practice has changed drastically in the past few years and patients' opportunities to get medical informations have increased significantly. In light of this, patients' needs in general practice should be re-assessed.

Patients And Methods: 279 patients from 16 practices mainly in Hessen and Rhineland-Palatinate were interviewed.

[Burden and need for psychosocial intervention of glioblastoma patients].

Glioblastoma patients should be provided with a professional health care system that helps reduce their psychosocial burden. The aim of this study was to identify patients in need of psychosocial intervention. In addition, it was examined whether physicians' assessments adequately address the burden patients are under and their need for intervention.

[Assessment of communication skills with an OSCE among first year medical students].

In order to determine if first year medical students of a Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology course have adopted basic physician patient communication skills, we developed an appropriate Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). The parcours took place in a pretest condition (n=182) and in the following semester under test condition, now relevant for passing the course (n=181). Reliability of the OSCE reached a medium degree (α=0.

Symptom prevalence in the last days of life in Germany: the role of place of death.

Investigations have shown that symptom prevalence varies according to the place of death. We sought to assess the symptom prevalence of chronically ill people in Germany and how this prevalence differs depending on the place of death. We sent questionnaires to 5000 bereaved people in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany), whose relatives died between May 25 and August 24, 2008.

Preference for place of death in Germany.

Background: Dying in the preferred place is considered a key requirement for a "good death." The aims of our study were to explore preferred places of death of deceased people and their bereaved relatives in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). We further wanted to assess the congruence between preferred and actual place of death.

Factors influencing place of death in Germany.

Context: Knowledge about factors influencing the place of death may be very useful for the planning of public health strategies to improve the situation of terminally ill patients.

Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine where people died in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2008. We further wanted to detect which factors had an influence on the place of death.

End-of-life care in Germany: Study design, methods and first results of the EPACS study (Establishment of Hospice and Palliative Care Services in Germany).

Background: In order to tackle the deficits in the provision of palliative home care, profound structural changes in the outpatient sector were introduced by law in Germany in 2007. The EPACS study was carried out (Research Accompanying the Establishment of Hospice and Palliative Care Services in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) to document the quality of inpatient and outpatient end-of-life care in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, before the implementation of these changes. With this article we focus on the study design and methods of the EPACS-Study.