How oncology teams can be patient-centred? opportunities for theoretical improvement through an empirical examination

In the context of interprofessional practice, a patient-centred approach is recommended, which generally means power-sharing, shared decision making and involving patients as part of the health-care team. These aspects, which are essential to "patient-centred" practice, do not appear to be sufficient to illustrate the full richness of this practice.

This article aimed to understand how interprofessional patient-centred (IPPC) practice in oncology teams contributes to creating a more positive experience for patients. Objectives were to (a) describe the IPPC practice of oncology teams using the IPPC Practice Framework; (b) determine the usefulness of this framework; and (c) offer alternative proposals for expanding our understanding of IPPC practice.

A secondary analysis was performed with data from a multicase study designed to explore the effects of interdisciplinary work among oncology teams. Data were provided from six focus groups with professionals (n = 22) and patients diagnosed with cancer (n = 16). An iterative content analysis was performed.

Applying the theoretical framework to data analysis enabled us to distinguish between the IPPC practice of the different teams and structure the data collected in order to show the processes and place them in context. However, it proved to be difficult to describe the central component of the theoretical framework, patient-centred processes. This situation raises new hypotheses for representing practice in a real-life context. An alternative perspective for illustrating IPPC practice is therefore proposed.

This study emphasizes the importance of exploring the utility of theoretical frameworks and refining them in order to broaden our understanding of IPPC practice.