Cancer care—A stress for health professionals

Delvaux, Nicole; Razavi, Darius; Farvacques, Christine

doi:10.1016/0277-9536(88)90324-3

Cited by 65 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Caring for cancer patients, and especially for patients who cannot be cured and in whom only palliative treatment is possible, is highly stressful. Cumulative and unresolved stress may lead oncologists to withdraw from communication with patients (Delvaux et al, 1988;Ramirez et al, 1996). 4.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How successful are oncologists in identifying patient distress, perceived social support, and need for psychosocial counselling?

et al. 2001

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Summary 20-40% of cancer patients show emotional distress. Psychosocial support should be offered to severely distressed patients. However, little is known about the selection of patients to whom such support should be offered. This study investigated oncologists' ability to identify such patients. In a consecutive series of 298 cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy, distress, perceived social support and desire for supportive counselling were assessed using screening instruments. Simultaneously, 8 oncologists estimated patient distress and need for psychosocial support. A complete set of data was obtained in 80.2% of cases. Concordance of the oncologists' estimation of patient distress and perceived social support with the results of the screening instruments was weak (κ = 0.10 and κ = 0.05). Oncologists recognized the presence of severe distress only in 11 of the 30 severely distressed patients. Correct perception of distress was lower in patients with head and neck cancer and lung cancer and in lower class patients. Oncologists' recommendations for supportive counselling did not correlate with patient distress or the amount of perceived support but rather with progressive disease and less denial behaviour. Our results underline the need for educating oncologists in order to improve their ability to identify patient distress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How successful are oncologists in identifying patient distress, perceived social support, and need for psychosocial counselling?

et al. 2001

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“…There have been no well-controlled comparative studies to date examining whether certain specialties within medicine in general are more prone to burn-out or psychiatric disorder. However, there have been suggestions that the particular stresses of cancer medicine place oncologists at particular risk (Delvaux et al., 1988;Whippen and Canellos, 1991). The report by Ramirez et al in this journal reveals that 28% of their survey of 393 British oncologists had a psychiatric disorder.…”

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confidence: 99%

Can we improve the professional and personal fulfilment of doctors in cancer medicine?

Fallowfield¹

1995

Br J Cancer

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“…It has been argued that cancer medicin is inhrently stressful because of the frequent exposure to death and dying and the conflict between the curative goals, on which most training is based, and the palliative goals of much cancer care (Delvaux et al, 1988). A recent descriptive study conducted in the USA has suggested that American oncologists do indeed experience high levels of 'burnout' (Whippen and Canellos, 1991).…”

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confidence: 99%