Calls for Doctors to Improve
Communications Skills

LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors need to improve their communication skills because patients say the information they are given when diagnosed with cancer is incomplete or incomprehensible, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

Forty-five percent of women with breast cancer who were questioned for a German study said they were unclear about what they had been told during the consultation and nearly 60% wanted to speak to other medical staff.

"Almost half reported that they weren't satisfied with the communication," Dr. Jacqueline Kerr told Reuters.

The epidemiologist at the Munich Cancer Registry at Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany said doctors may have given patients the right information but either they were not good enough at communicating it or the patients were stressed and could not comprehend what they had been told.

Whatever the reason, patients were left with questions about their illness and were unaware of self-help groups that could have an impact on their quality of life.

Although the study concerned German patients, Kerr said it is a worldwide problem and doctors themselves often admit that communication is not one of their best skills.

"It has to be recognized as a problem that does have an effect on the patients," Kerr said, adding that how cancer is presented to a patient can have an impact on how they cope with the illness.

In a study reported in the Annals of Oncology of nearly 1,000 breast cancer patients, most rated social and psychological help as important but only a third had contact with a self-help group and only half were aware that such help was available.

"Overall quality of life differed by up to 10 points on a 0-100 scale between those reporting clear and unclear communication--a clinically significant amount," Kerr explained.

Younger patients, those under 50 years old, were less satisfied with the information they had been given than older patients during the five-year study. They were also more eager to get help from psychologists and social workers to help them cope with the illness.

Kerr and her colleagues called for better training in communication skills for doctors and said distressed patients required special attention.

They also suggested giving patients written or audio records of the consultation so they could listen to it and formulate questions.

Bringing a friend or relative could also improve communication during the diagnosis and patients should also be given access to information afterwards.

Reference Source 89

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