Integrating Evidence-Based Communication Principles to Enhance Routine Cancer Care

Oncology nurses can improve clinician and patient/caregiver outcomes by integrating evidence-based communication throughout routine oncology care, according to a study recently published in Supportive Care in Cancer.

Several evidence-based training programs have been shown to provide didactic and experiential skills that help clinicians establish effective communication approaches with patients and caregivers. But they are not universally integrated into routine cancer care. Thus, a need exists to ensure integration.

The researchers adapted key communication strategies from Empathic and Shared Decision-Making Communication Blueprint (The Blueprint), Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Communication Skills Training Program and Research Laboratory evidence-based communication model. The Blueprint outlines 10 communication strategies based on ASCO recommendations and palliative care principles ranging from setting an agenda, establishing the clinician-patient team, sharing information on disease and treatment, providing coping support, and closing the encounter.

The researchers also refer to the Communication Blueprint Traffic Circle, a visually concise tool that can accompany strategies from The Blueprint. The Traffic Circle navigates 3 overarching communication approaches:

• Content selection and delivery,
• Rapport development, and
• Empathic connection.

The goal was to demonstrate useful “rules of the road” clinicians can use during clinical encounters. But there is a caveat: clinicians must be nimble in their approach. They must be able to adapt their communication approach to the concerns of the patients and their caregivers, comparing the agility required for these conversations to the agility required to navigate a traffic circle.

Flexibility in approach allows clinicians to gain a richer perspective of patients and their caregivers, which in turn allow clinicians to better meet the needs of their patients and caregivers, the researchers explained.

The researchers reiterated that cancer diagnosis, treatment, and progression can be terrifying for patients and caregivers, but evidence-based communication principles derived from the palliative care model can make the cancer journey “more tolerable.”

Models and blueprints can be helpful, but clinicians also need “learning environments that promote ongoing practice opportunities and expert feedback to support communication capacity development,” the researchers concluded.

Reference
Rosa WE, Levoy K, Doyon K, et al. Integrating evidence-based communication principles into routine cancer care. Supportive Care in Cancer. Published online September 8, 2023. doi:10.1007/s00520-023-08020-x