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Psychologists' views of inter-disciplinary psychosocial communication within the cancer care team
1Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-Based Decision-making, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia, belinda.thewes@sydney.edu.au.
Background:
Little is known about how psychologists working in cancer care centres communicate clinical information to other members of the multidisciplinary team or what information is communicated.
Purpose:
This study surveyed Australian cancer care psychologists regarding their communication practices and their views on barriers to and facilitators of effective inter-disciplinary communication.
Methods:
Psychologists were invited to complete an online survey containing purpose-designed items that addressed study aims.
Results:
Forty-four psychologists completed the survey. Psychologists' most common method of recording initial consultations was in patient medical records, with 69 % of respondents recording notes in either most of the time or all of the time. Twenty-two percent of psychologists said they did not regularly feedback the results of an initial assessment to a referrer and more than 40 % used verbal and e-mail communication to do so.
Conclusions:
This study provides data that will assist in the development of guidelines for inter-professional communication between psychologists and other members of the cancer care team.
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