Are members of multidisciplinary teams in breast cancer aware of each other's informational roles?
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a commissioned survey of multidisciplinary breast team members' expectations of their own and each other's roles in providing different kinds of information to women with breast cancer.


METHODS
Questionnaire based survey.


METHODS
Health professionals from five multidisciplinary breast care centres within a Sussex health authority.


METHODS
Interdisciplinary awareness of informational roles played by different team members.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the team survey suggest that, in most cases, health professionals fulfilled the roles expected of them by the team, with two or three individuals identified as the main providers of information for each topic. However, many more professionals were involved in major discussions without the team's knowledge. The professional consistently playing a major "unseen" role was the breast nurse specialist.
Jenkins
V A
VA
CRC Psychosocial Oncology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex BN1 9QG, UK. Royal Marsden NHS Trust, London, UK. v.a.jenkins@biols.susx.ac.uk
Fallowfield
L J
LJ
Poole
K
K
D001364:Awareness; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000592:standards / Q000600:supply & distribution; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom