Responding to challenging interactions with families: A training module for inpatient oncology nurses.

INTRODUCTION: Sustaining the well-being of the caregiving family is a critical agenda in cancer care. In the multidisciplinary team, nurses often serve as a bridge between the family and oncology team. Evidence suggests that dealing with difficult family dynamics is a common source of stress for oncology nurses, yet nurses typically receive very little guidance on how to achieve an effective partnership with families under these circumstances. We report on the application and preliminary evaluation of a new training module for improving nurses' skills in responding collaborative to challenging family situations. METHOD: Training was delivered to 282 inpatient oncology nurses at a comprehensive cancer center over 2 years. Posttraining surveys measured perceived changes in confidence working with families, as well as the utility and relevance of this training. A 6-month follow-up survey measured continued use of skills. RESULTS: Of the nurses, 75%-90% reported that the skills learned were useful and relevant to their setting. Retrospective pre-post ratings suggested increased confidence in managing stressful encounters with families. DISCUSSION: Further investigation is needed to observe how nurses transport these skills into their practice settings and to understand the role of the nurse-as-family champion within the larger multidisciplinary team. (PsycINFO Database Record

Oncology nurses' communication challenges with patients and families: A qualitative study.

The benefits of effective communication in an oncology setting are multifold and include the overall well-being of patients and health professionals, adherence to treatment regimens, psychological functioning, and improvements in quality of life. Nevertheless, there are substantial barriers and communication challenges reported by oncology nurses. This study was conducted to present a summary of communication challenges faced by oncology nurses. From November 2012 to March 2014, 121 inpatient nurses working in the oncology setting participated in an online pre-training qualitative survey that asked nurses to describe common communication challenges in communicating empathy and discussing death, dying, and end-of-life (EOL) goals of care. The results revealed six themes that describe the challenges in communicating empathically: dialectic tensions, burden of carrying bad news, lack of skills for providing empathy, perceived institutional barriers, challenging situations, and perceived dissimilarities between the nurse and the patient. The results for challenges in discussing death, dying and EOL goals of care revealed five themes: dialectic tensions, discussing specific topics related to EOL, lack of skills for providing empathy, patient/family characteristics, and perceived institutional barriers. This study emphasizes the need for institutions to provide communication skills training to their oncology nurses for navigating through challenging patient interactions.

Responding empathically to patients: Development, implementation, and evaluation of a communication skills training module for oncology nurses.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to report on the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Communication Skills Training (CST) module for inpatient oncology nurses on how to respond empathically to patients. METHODS: 248 nurses from a USA cancer center participated in a CST module on responding empathically to patients. Nurses completed pre- and post-training Standardized Patient Assessments (SPAs), a survey on their confidence in and intent to utilize skills taught, and a six-month post-training survey of self-reported use of skills. RESULTS: Results indicate that nurses were satisfied with the module, reporting that agreement or strong agreement to 5 out of 6 items assessing satisfaction 96.7%-98.0% of the time. Nurses' self-efficacy in responding empathically significantly increased pre- to post-training. Additionally, nurses showed empathy skill improvement in the post-SPAs. Finally, 88.2% of nurses reported feeling confident in using the skills they learned post-training and reported an increase of 42-63% in the use of specific empathic skills. CONCLUSIONS: A CST module for nurses in responding empathically to patients showed feasibility, acceptability, and improvement in self-efficacy as well as skill uptake. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This CST module provides an easily targeted intervention for improving nurse-patient communication and patient-centered care.