Educational intervention in cancer outpatient clinics on routine screening for emotional distress: an observational study.

Purpose: To examine the possible effect of an educational model on distress screening in newly diagnosed cancer patients referred to Psycho-oncology service (POS).

Methods: We examined the differences in distress and problems among newly diagnosed cancer patients referred to POS by cancer care professionals' according to their clinical judgement (2-year period; Study-1) and after an educational intervention on the Distress Thermometer (DT) and Problem List (PL), with referral to those reporting cut-off scores indicative of 'caseness' (DT>4) (1-year period; Study-2).

Results: In Study-1, 153 (6.