Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine
Open Access

Research Article

Communication Skills Training Significantly Improves Lung Cancer Patient`s Understanding

Wiebke Nehls^1*, Sabine Gabrijel¹, Alexander Kiss², Sandra Delis¹, Nina-Barbara Black¹, Jens Kollmeier¹, Andrea Koch³ and Torsten Bauer¹

¹Clinic for Pneumology, Lungenklinik Heckeshorn, HELIOS Klinikum Emil von Behring, Berlin, Germany

²Division of Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

³Department of Pneumology, Allergology, Sleep- and Ventilation Medicine, Berufsgenossenschaftliches Uniklinikum Bochum-Bergmannsheil, Bochum, Germany

*Corresponding Author:

Wiebke Nehls
Klinik für Pneumologie, Lungenklinik Heckeshorn
HELIOS Klinikum Emil von Behring
Walterhöferstraße 11, 14165 Berlin, Germany
Tel: 0049 30 8102-2776
E-mail: wiebke.nehls@gmx.de

Received date: May 21, 2014; Accepted date: August 08, 2014; Published date: August 18, 2014

Citation: Nehls W, Gabrijel S, Kiss A, Delis S, Black NB, et al. (2014) Communication Skills Training Significantly Improves Lung Cancer Patient`s Understanding. J Palliat Care Med 4:182. doi: 10.4172/2165-7386.1000182

Copyright: © 2014 Nehls W, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Introduction: We investigated whether a communication skill training (CST) for physicians leads to improved satisfaction of patients with the disclosure procedure about lung cancer and whether the patient´s recall can be improved.
Methods: In an observation study 101 patients, who were disclosed about their lung cancer diagnosis, were questioned about the recall and satisfaction regarding diagnosis, therapy and therapy goal. The contents of the physicians’ structured questionnaire were then matched with the questions posed to patients in interviews regarding recall. A total of 37 physicians from the lung cancer center attended to a structured CST with simulated patients on basis of the SPIKES model. After this intervention, 100 diagnosed patients were interviewed accordingly.
Results: Patients recall of diagnosis and therapy was very high in the observational study (correct recall of diagnosis 86%, correct recall of therapy 81%). The recall results of the physicians trained in communication were comparably high (80% and 82%). The recall of the therapeutic goal respectively, were initially low (42%) and could be raised significantly using the CST (61%; p=0.009). The level of satisfaction with the conversation about diagnosis and therapy was high in both studies. Patients` satisfaction with communication about the treatment goal improved significantly when disclosed by trained physicians (81% versus 53%; p<0.001).
Conclusion: Lung cancer patients do understand the therapeutic goal and their prognosis better, if the disclosing physician took part in a CST. Moreover, patients are more satisfied with the conversation about their prognosis, when trained physicians explain the disease.

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