Abstract
Objective: To explore how oncology healthcare workers’ (HCPs) personal experiences with suicide impacts their practice with cancer patients. Design: The study was designed using Grounded Theory strategies in data collection and analysis. Participants: Eighteen social workers, 23 oncologists, and 20 nurses, participated in the research. Methods: Themes emerged from systematic line-by-line coding of the interview transcripts. Findings: HCPs reported that personal experiences with suicide: impacted the way they communicated with patients about suicide; made them vigilant about signs of suicidality; and made them aware of specific indicators of this distress. Conclusions: HCPs drew a direct line between their experiences with suicide to the ways in which they care for their patients. Implications: Increasing HCP awareness of these issues alongside training using evidence-based guidelines for identifying and responding to suicide risk in patients will ensure providing the best quality of care for patients.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 543-556 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Psychosocial Oncology |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2 Sep 2020 |
Keywords
- nurses
- oncologists
- oncology
- qualitative research
- social workers
- suicide
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Applied Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health