Psychological Support for Cancer Care Professionals: Contemporary Theory and Practice within the Czech Healthcare System

Czech version

Authors: M. Světlák ¹; A. Suchý ²
Authors‘ workplace: Dětská nemocnice, FN Brno ¹; Ordinace klinické psychologie, Prostějov ²
Published in: Klin Onkol 2011; 24(4): 302-307
Category: Short Communication

Overview

Health care professionals, especially those working in cancer care, represent a subgroup of helping professions that requires special psychological care. Recent findings clearly show that a lack of regular psychological care for oncologists and oncology nurses leads to higher rate of psychiatric and physical illness, poorer quality of life, higher employee fluctuation rates and lower quality of provided medical care. In spite of this, the special psychological care for cancer care professionals is still lacking and theoretical and practical level of their undergraduate and postgraduate education in psychology does not satisfy the demands of clinical practice. Regular group meetings seem to be an effective way of psychological care. They provide an opportunity for the participants to view own problems from a distance and to seek new options. It allows them to gain new insights from the discussed situations and to get support or feedback from colleagues. Regular group meetings also represent a key component of self-care and it is an important preventive factor of exhaustion that has been shown to cause medical or personal misconducts. In this context, the aim of the present paper is to describe the basic theoretical background for regular group meetings of oncologists and oncology nurses and to refer about the current practice within the Czech health care system.

Key words:
clinical supervision – group psychotherapy – prevention – prophylaxis – Gestalt approach

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