Oncologists, oncology nurses and oncology social workers experiences with suicide: impact on patient care

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.