Signalising psychosocial problems in cancer care :the structural use of a short psychosocial checklist during medical or nursing visits.

Objective: In this summary of literature, we evaluated 16 studies with respect to recognition and screening for psychosocial problems of cancer patients during nursing or medical visits, and with respect to the effects of providing quality of life information during these visits.

Methods: A review of the literature was conducted. To obtain the relevant literature, a search was made of two databases: Medline and Nursing and Allied Health Literature. The literature from the last 12 years - from 1993 till 2004 - was selected.

Results: The results show that in a number of studies a gap is demonstrated between the presence of cancer patients' psychosocial problems and health care providers' ability to signalise these problems adequately. The outcomes of these studies further show that the use of a psychosocial checklist is helpful in screening and communicating psychosocial problems, and that supplying information about quality of life facilitates provider-patient communication about these issues.

Conclusion: None of the studies, however, provides extensive insight into the feasibility of a psychosocial checklist in daily oncology practice. Implementation projects have to be conducted focussing on conditions that block or facilitate the use of a psychosocial checklist in daily practice.

Practice Implications: By monitoring blocking and facilitating conditions strictly and, if necessary, by adjusting them, we can create guidelines to make the use of a psychosocial checklist feasible.