Revista de Práticas Avançadas em Enfermagem

Communication Skills Effectiveness between Healthcare Providers and Patients in Cancer Care Centers in Lebanon

Abstract

Mohammad Salem and Hasan Sadek

Objectives: This study was designed to assess the effect of healthcare providers’ communication skills in the satisfaction and outcomes of cancer patients in cancer care centers in Lebanon.

Methods: This cross sectional quantitative study was conducted in five different cancer care centers in Lebanon. Two hundred and twenty participants across all the five selected centers were asked to take part in the study by filling the 16-item questionnaire. Data was collected within two months, from May to July 2018.

Results: Two hundred and nine questionnaires (95% response rate) were completed and used in the analysis. Out of the 47.4% of the cancer patients who expressed satisfactions with their consultations with the doctors, only 34% recognized that such consultations were useful. Further, more than 55% of the patients do not understand the medical terms used by doctors and are hence less satisfied with the consultations. This study has also confirmed that most cancer patients consider communication to be more significant at the pretreatment phase.

Conclusion: We have established that the healthcare practitioners, especially doctors, still use technical language and terminologies that discomfort the cancer patients and thus hamper their satisfaction and better outcome. Moreover, the demographic factors such as level of education also contribute to patients’ satisfaction with caregivers’ communication skills.