Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec;32(12):1827-1838.
doi: 10.1002/pon.6247. Epub 2023 Nov 13.

Harmful communication behaviors in cancer care: A systematic review of patients and family caregivers perspectives

Janine Westendorp  1 , Olaf P Geerse  2   3 , Marije L van der Lee  4   5 , Jan W Schoones  6 , Milon H M van Vliet  1   7 , Tamara Wit  1 , Andrea W M Evers  1   8 , Liesbeth M van Vliet  1
Affiliations

Harmful communication behaviors in cancer care: A systematic review of patients and family caregivers perspectives

Janine Westendorp et al. Psychooncology. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: Issues regarding clinician communication remain an important source of complaints within healthcare. This systematic review aims to determine cancer patients' and their family caregivers' views on which clinicians' communication behaviors can harm (i.e. eliciting negative feelings/consequences for patients/family caregivers).

Methods: We searched for all types of peer-reviewed studies that determined adult (≥18 years) cancer patients' and/or family caregivers' perspectives on which clinicians' communication behaviors can harm in several databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Emcare, PsycINFO and Academic Search Premier), supplemented by expert-consultation. Studies were screened using the Artificial intelligence screening tool of ASReview and data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis. To assess the quality of the studies the Qualsyst critical appraisal tool was used.

Results: A total of 47 studies were included. Four main themes of harmful communication behaviors were identified: (1) Lack of tailored information provision (e.g. giving too little or too much/specific information) (2) Lack of tailored decision making (ranging from; patient exclusion, to the patients' responsibility, and/or haste) (3) Lack of feeling seen and heard (seen as a disease, not as a human being; not listened to concerns and emotions) (4) Lack of feeling held and remembered (forgotten agreements; lack of care continuity).

Conclusions: Our results reveal an overview of patients' and family caregivers' perspectives on which clinicians' communication behaviors can harm. Harm could be prevented when information and decision involvement are tailored and patients' and family caregivers' needs to feel seen, heard, held and remembered are met.

Keywords: cancer; communication; complaints; family caregiver perspective; harm; oncology; patient perspective; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Mitchell AJ, Chan M, Bhatti H, et al. Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorder in oncological, haematological, and palliative-care settings: a meta-analysis of 94 interview-based studies. Lancet Oncol. 2011;12(2):160-174. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(11)70002-x
    1. Van den Beuken-van Everdingen M, de Rijke J, Kessels A, Schouten H, van Kleef M, Patijn J. Prevalence of pain in patients with cancer: a systematic review of the past 40 years. Ann Oncol. 2007;18(9):1437-1449. https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdm056
    1. Götze H, Brähler E, Gansera L, Schnabel A, Gottschalk-Fleischer A, Köhler N. Anxiety, depression and quality of life in family caregivers of palliative cancer patients during home care and after the patient's death. Eur J Cancer Care. 2018;27(2):e12606. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12606
    1. Bensing JM, Dronkers J. Instrumental and affective aspects of physician behavior. Med Care. 1992;30(4):283-298. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005650-199204000-00001
    1. van Vliet LM, Epstein AS. Current state of the art and science of patient-clinician communication in progressive disease: patients' need to know and need to feel known. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32(31):3474-3478. https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2014.56.0425

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources