A medical oncologist's perspective on communication skills and burnout syndrome with psycho-oncological approach (To die with each patient one more time: the fate of the oncologists)

Abstract

The increasing incidence of cancer is at the same time one of the leading causes of death all over the world. Many clinical studies show that the psychological disorders are more frequent in cancer patients than the normal population. That is the reason why "psychooncology" is getting popular each day. On the other hand, clinical studies about psychological status of the oncologists who are in contact with cancer patients ceaselessly and who are mostly responsible to give the "bad news" to the cancer patients are very limited. In fact, if the clinical studies which show that the frequency of depression and burnout syndrome are increasing among physicians are taken into consideration, one can say that psycho-oncology must cover all the medical personnel who are dealing with cancer patients. It is determined that the rate of depression and burnout syndrome is high among oncologists when referred to the literature. Several solutions are proposed for the psychological conditions of the oncologists and other related personnel who empathize with the patients and deliver "bad news" and also try to adopt ideal "patient-physician" communication model. The knowledge on the psychological conditions of oncology professionals and their behaviour and the results of the clinical studies on this subject will be discussed and the personal opinion will also be presented in this paper.