Communication en oncologie dans le cadre d'essais thérapeutiques de phase I : mise en œuvre et évaluation d'un programme de formation

Communication training programs in oncology have demonstrated some efficacy to improve doctors' communication skills. The goal of our study was to evaluate the impact of such training in the particular context of phase I clinical trials. Self-satisfaction and self-efficacy scales evaluating doctor-patient communication was completed by 6 medical oncologists (3 juniors and 3 seniors) before and after their communication training for a total of sixty visits. Two types of visit have been distinguished: the visits between the oncologist and the patient alone (a dual situation) and those with a third party (a trilateral situation). For all the doctors in dual and trialateral situations, self-efficacy scores improved significantly after training. This improvement was more pronounced for juniors oncologists in trilateral situations. Before training, satisfactory scores were worst in duel versus trilateral situations (P = 0.01). This was particularly pronounced for junior compared to senior doctors (P = 0.035). After training, in trilateral situations, the satisfaction scores of junior doctors matched that of the senior doctors. The communication training programs appear to benefit junior oncologists to a greater extent in trilateral situations.