A randomized controlled trial assessing behavioral, cognitive, emotional and physiological changes resulting from a communication skills training in physicians caring for cancer patients.

Objective: This randomized study assesses behavioral, cognitive, emotional and physiological changes resulting from a communication skills training (CST) for physicians caring for cancer patients.

Methods: Medical specialists (N = 90) were randomly assigned in groups to complete a manualized 30-h CST or to a waiting list. Assessments included behavioral (communication skills), cognitive (self-efficacy, sense of mastery), emotional (perceived stress) and physiological (heart rate) measures.

Development of the LaComm 1.0, A French medical communication analysis software: A study assessing its sensitivity to change.

Objective: To test and compare the sensitivity to change of a communication analysis software, the LaComm 1.0, to the CRCWEM's using data from a randomized study assessing the efficacy of a communication skills training program designed for nurses.

Methods: The program assessment included the recording of two-person simulated interviews at baseline and after training or 3 months later.

Is it possible to improve communication around radiotherapy delivery: A randomized study to assess the efficacy of team training?

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.

Transfer of communication skills to the workplace: impact of a 38-hour communication skills training program designed for radiotherapy teams.

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.

Is it possible to improve radiotherapy team members' communication skills? A randomized study assessing the efficacy of a 38-h communication skills training program.

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.

The effect of communication skills training on residents' physiological arousal in a breaking bad news simulated task.

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.

How much is residents' distress detection performance during a clinical round related to their characteristics?

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).

Transfer of communication skills to the workplace during clinical rounds: impact of a program for residents.

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.

Predictors and correlates of burnout in residents working with cancer patients.

There 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.

Insight on variables leading to burnout in cancer physicians.

Although communication skills training programs have been recommended to reduce physicians' burnout, few studies have investigated their efficacy. This study assessed the impact of two training programs on cancer physicians' burnout. Especially, it identified some variables leading to burnout in order to develop effective interventions.

Factors that influence cancer patients' and relatives' anxiety following a three-person medical consultation: impact of a communication skills training program for physicians.

Background: 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.

Factors influencing physicians' detection of cancer patients' and relatives' distress: can a communication skills training program improve physicians' detection?

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the impact on physicians' detection of patients' and relatives' distress of six 3-h consolidation workshops (CW) following a 2.5-day communication skills basic training (BT) program and to investigate factors associated with detection of distress.

Methods: Physicians, after BT, were randomized to CW or to a waiting list.

Physicians are different when they learn communication skills: influence of the locus of control.

Purpose: Although it is widely recognised that educational interventions may be more effective for people with an 'internal' Locus of Control (who believe that life outcomes are controlled by their own characteristics or actions) compared to people with an 'external' Locus of Control (who believe that life outcomes are controlled by external forces such as luck, fate or others), no study has yet assessed the influence of physicians' Locus of Control (LOC) on communication skills learning. This study aims to test the hypothesis that, in a communication skills training program, physicians with an 'internal' LOC would demonstrate communication skills acquisition to a greater degree than those with an 'external' LOC.

Methods: A non-randomised longitudinal intervention study was conducted between January 1999 and April 2001.

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

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.

Does psychological characteristic influence physicians' communication styles? Impact of physicians' locus of control on interviews with a cancer patient and a relative.

Context: Physicians' psychological characteristics may influence their communication styles and may thus interfere with patient-centred communication.

Objective: Our aim was to test the hypothesis that, in interviews with a cancer patient and a relative, physicians with an "external" locus of control (LOC; who believe that life outcomes are controlled by external forces such as luck, fate or others) have a communication style different from that of physicians with an "internal" LOC (who believe that life outcomes are controlled by their own characteristics or actions).

Design, Setting, Participants And Intervention: Eighty-one voluntary physicians practising in the field of oncology were recorded while performing an actual and a simulated interview with a cancer patient and a relative.

Factors that influence physicians' detection of distress in patients with cancer: can a communication skills training program improve physicians' detection?

Background: No study to date has assessed the impact of skills acquisition after a communication skills training program on physicians' ability to detect distress in patients with cancer.

Methods: First, the authors used a randomized design to assess the impact, on physicians' ability to detect patients' distress, of a 1-hour theoretical information course followed by 2 communication skills training programs: a 2.5-day basic training program and the same training program consolidated by 6 3-hour consolidation workshops.

Physicians' communication with a cancer patient and a relative: a randomized study assessing the efficacy of consolidation workshops.

Background: Although patients with cancer are often accompanied by a relative during medical interviews, to the authors' knowledge little is known regarding the efficacy of communication skills training programs on physicians' communication skills in this context. The objective of the current study was to assess the efficacy of 6 consolidation workshops, 3 hours in length, that were conducted after a 2.5-day basic training program.

How to optimize physicians' communication skills in cancer care: results of a randomized study assessing the usefulness of posttraining consolidation workshops.

Purpose: Although there is wide recognition of the usefulness of improving physicians' communication skills, no studies have yet assessed the efficacy of post-training consolidation workshops. This study aims to assess the efficacy of six 3-hour consolidation workshops conducted after a 2.5-day basic training program.