La comunicazione della diagnosi di tumore ai bambini: tre studi

An effective communication to children lead to a lower incidence of long-term psychopathological implications, such as lower levels of anxiety and distress, increases the child’s sense of control on the illness and furthers the expression of fears, suffers and anguishes. Moreover an effective diagnosis communication promotes the development of a trustful relationship between the physician and the child, a closer adherence to therapies and a consequently, and therefore bigger chance of healing, but also a higher quality of life and a lower incidence of relapses. Cancer can be defined as a “systemic” illness, that affect the all family; the psycological consequences of cancer diagnosis communication are similar for the ill child, parents and siblings, even when the child is a son of ill parents. In western medical culture a direct and clear communication of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment both to the child and the parents is considered to be a principle and above all a duty. However, it is well known from the literature that the communication process is strongly dependent from factors related to the cultural background, from the hospital environment and from the personal communicative style of each member of hospital staff. This manuscript describes three case studies which were performed and managed during a PhD. These research had the goal of investigate the topic of the diagnosis communication from different point of view, focusing on the ones from the parents of sick children, from the doctor and from parents affected by cancer. The aim of these studies was to identify the most common procedures used in different Italian hospitals and shed light on their effectiveness or disfunctions; the parents satisfaction was evaluated with reference to the diagnosis communication delivered to themselves and their children, both as parents of sick children and patients with children. Particular attention was given to physicians’ feelings and their communication skills as well as to the role of psychologists, the relationship with them and how these factors could influence the satisfaction level expressed.