Patients' emotional expressions and clinicians' responses in oncology – from recognition to exploration of concerns

Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyze patient's emotional expressions during the consultations and the responses of their oncologists to these expressions.
Methods: The study employed a mixed-method, observational, descriptive, and explanatory design. A total of 31 adult patients at different clinical stages, undergoing cancer treatment and 8 oncologists were included. Thirty-one routine outpatient oncology consultations were analyzed, after being transcribed and coded, using the Portuguese version of the Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences (VR-CoDES).
Results: The oncologists elicited and recognized patients' emotional concerns but they did not explore them in a way that encouraged patients to continue verbalizing their feelings. Oncologists provided more directive and guidance-oriented responses, focusing on cues related to physical pain and symptoms. Multilevel logistic regression analysis modeled the probability of oncologists' responses showing reduction of space in relation to patients' emotional cues/concerns, controlling for clustering and patients' clinical and socio-demographic variables. The type of cue and treatment influenced the oncologists' responses.
Conclusions: Communication skills training focused on the ability to better explore patients' emotions may help oncologists to provide more explicit and empathetic responses that validate the emotional content expressed during consultations. Practice Implications: Oncologists do not use the same responses as a standard with patients, thus adjusting them individually.