Keywords
Bad news
Oncology
Validity
Reliability
Abstract
Communication of bad news represents a frequent, unavoidable, and stressful situation in clinical settings. The manner in which bad news is communicated affects patients in different ways. Thus, it has become increasingly important to adequately assess the communication skills involved. Current instruments for measuring such skills in oncology present limited evidence of validity, they are not very accessible because they require a great deal of training and time. Such procedures are used more in teaching and training than in research. The present study aimed to develop and validate an effective communication questionnaire in oncology. A cross-sectional design was used in which oncologists and residents participated. The six-step protocol for communicating bad news (SPIKE) and the communication recommendations of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) were used to design the instrument, and the items obtained were evaluated for relevance, coherence, and clarity by a group of six experts in the field. Piloting was performed on 25 internal medicine residents, and a final application was performed on 87 oncology physicians and residents. The results show that the effective communication questionnaire presents from good to excellent content validity in each item and the whole scale showed an alpha coefficient of .97. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 30 items in three factors: basic communication skills (α = .91), discussion of goals of care and prognosis (α = .84), and empathy (α = .78), that together explain 44.4% of the variance, and show adequate internal consistency. It is concluded that the Questionnaire of Effective Communication in Oncology shows adequate psychometric properties for its use in research. Data showed the questionnaire is useful to explore the communication skills of oncologists and residents. Future studies should continue collecting evidence of the instrument’s validity by expanding the number of participants and applying it to diverse professional populations, as well as relating it to other variables.
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