Factors that influence cancer patients' and relatives' anxiety following a three‐person medical consultation: impact of a communication skills training program for physicians

Abstract

No study has yet assessed the impact of physicians' skills acquisition after a communication skills training program on changes in patients' and relatives' anxiety following a three-person medical consultation. This study aimed at comparing, in a randomized study, the impact, on patients' and relatives' anxiety, of a basic communication skills training program and the same program consolidated by consolidation workshops and at investigating physicians' communication variables associated with patients' and relatives' anxiety. Consultations with a cancer patient and a relative were recorded and analyzed by the Cancer Research Campaign Workshop Evaluation Manual. Patients' and relatives' anxiety were assessed with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State. No statistically significant change over time and between groups was observed. Mixed-effects modeling of changes in patients' and relatives' anxiety showed that decreases in both patients' and relatives' anxiety were linked with patients' and relatives' self-reported distress (p = 0.031 and 0.005), and that increases in both patients' and relatives' anxiety were linked with physicians' breaking bad news (p = 0.028 and 0.005). No impact of the training program was observed. Results indicate the need to further study communication skills which may help reduce patients' and relatives' anxiety especially when breaking bad news.