title: Patient real-time and 12-month retrospective perceptions of difficult communications in the cancer diagnostic period.
abstract: Communication is a notoriously complex challenge in the cancer care context. Our program of research involves exploration of patient-provider communications across the cancer trajectory from the patient perspective.Toward this end, we have been following a cohort of 60 cancer patients, representing a range of tumor sites, from immediately after diagnosis through to recovery, chronic, or advanced disease. Drawing on interpretive description analytic techniques, we documented patterns and themes related to various components of the cancer journey. In this article, we report on findings pertaining to poor communication during the initial diagnostic period, as described by patients at the time of diagnosis and 1 year later.These findings illuminate the dynamics of communication problems during that complex period, and depict the mechanisms by which patients sought to confront these challenges to optimize their cancer care experience. On the basis of these findings, considered in the context of the body of available evidence, suggestions are proposed as to appropriate directions for system-level solutions to the complex communication challenges within cancer care.
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia,Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. sally.thorne@nursing.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thorne
authors.forename: Elizabeth-Anne
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: Susan R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: T Gregory
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Hislop
authors.forename: Charmaine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kim-Sing
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Oglov
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Oliffe
authors.forename: Kelli I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Stajduhar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011788:Quality of Life