Survival rates for children with cancer have increased over the past years. Simultaneously, children with cancer and their family have to deal with profound and stressful medical situations and more often deal with the impact of their disease. Good and effective communication, tailored to the needs of the child and family, has an important role in the psychosocial adaptation. Therefore, this project focusses on the analysis of patient-centered communication in pediatric oncology. For example, medical consults in pediatric oncology will be recorded and analyzed according to domains of patient-centered communication and the needs and experiences of children, parents and healthcare providers will systematically be investigated with surveys and interviews. Additionally, the influence of communication on various outcomes, such as satisfaction of care and anxiety, will be explored. The aim is to identify communication processes in order to find starting points for further improvement of communication in pediatric oncology. This project is part of the research line of Dr. Sasja Schepers about communication in pediatric oncology.
Petra is supervised by Prof. Dr. Martha Grootenhuis, Prof. Dr. Peter Hoogerbrugge, Dr. Sasja Schepers and Dr. Marijke Kars (UMC Utrecht).
Contactinformation
E-mail: p.buursma@prinsesmaximacentrum.nl