Cochrane Review on the impact of Communication Skills Training: (2016)

Communication skills training for healthcare professionals working with people who have cancer (Review) ii

Copyright © 2016 The Cochrane Collaboration

P L A I N L A N G U A G E S U M M A R Y

Are courses aimed at improving the way doctors and nurses communicate with patients with cancer helpful?

Peoplewith cancer, and thosewho care for them, often suffer frompsychological stresswhichmay be reduced by effective communication

and support from their attending doctor, nurse or other healthcare professional (HCP). Research suggests communication skills do

not reliably improve with experience, therefore, considerable effort is dedicated to courses to improve communication skills for HCPs

involved in cancer care. Many different types of communication skills training (CST) courses have been proposed and are in practice.

We conducted this review to determine whether CST works and which types of CST, if any, are the most effective.

We found 15 studies to include in this review. All of these studies except one were conducted in nurses and doctors. To measure the

impact of CST, some studies used encounters with real patients and some used role-players (simulated patients). We found that CST

significantly improved some of the communication skills used by healthcare workers, including using ’open questions’ in the interview

to gather information and showing empathy as a way of supporting their patients. Other communication skills evaluated showed no

significant differences between the HCPs who received the training and those who did not. We did not find evidence to suggest any

benefits of CST to patients’ mental and physical health, patient satisfaction levels or quality of life, however, few studies addressed these

outcomes. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the improvement in HCP communication skills is sustained over time and which types

of CST are best.

Communication