How Should Clinicians Respond to Transference Reactions with Cancer Patients?

Relationship boundaries recognition is an essential element of medical practice. The aim of the study was to assess final year medical students' perceived need for education regarding professional boundaries. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional study. An anonymous paper questionnaire was distributed to 128 final year medical students. Standard descriptive statistics, unpaired t-test to evaluate differences between male and female groups and Pearson correlation to determine relationships between variables were used.

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“…[ 16 ] Professionals are guided and regulated in their clinical practice by professional codes of ethics. [ 6 , 17 , 18 ]…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[16] Professionals are guided and regulated in their clinical practice by professional codes of ethics. [6,17,18] Ethics. Ethical theories that apply to all health care professionals are Deontological, Utilitarian and Virtue.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships and boundaries: Learning needs and preferences in clerkship medical environments

et al. 2020

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Cancer patients’ needs for virtues and physicians’ characteristics in physician-patient communication: a survey among patient representatives

Bartholomäus

Zomorodbakhsch

Micke

et al. 2018

Support Care Cancer

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Counter-Transference and the Clinical Ethics Encounter: What, Why, and How We Feel During Consultations

Redinger¹,

Gibb²

2020

Camb Q Healthc Ethics

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One of the more draining aspects of being a clinical ethicist is dealing with the emotions of patients, family members, as well as healthcare providers. Generally, by the time a clinical ethicist is called into a case, stress levels are running high, patience is low, and interpersonal communication is strained. Management of this emotional burden of clinical ethics is an underexamined aspect of the profession and academic literature. The emotional nature of doing clinical ethics consultation may be better addressed by utilizing concepts and tools from clinical psychology. Management of countertransference, the natural emotional reaction by the therapist toward the patient, is a widely discussed topic in the psychotherapeutic literature. This concept can be adapted to the clinical ethics encounter by broadening it beyond the patient-therapist relationship to refer to the ethics consultant's emotional response toward the patient, the family, or other members the healthcare team. Further, it may aid the consultant because a recognition of the source and nature of these reactions can help maintain ‘critical distance’ and minimize bias in the same way that a psychologist maintains neutrality in psychotherapy. This paper will offer suggestions on how to manage these emotional responses and their burden in the clinical ethics encounter, drawing upon techniques and strategies recommended in the psychotherapeutic literature. Using these techniques may improve consultation outcomes and reduce the emotional burden on the clinical ethicist.

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How Should Clinicians Respond to Transference Reactions with Cancer Patients?

Cited by 5 publications

References 5 publications

Relationships and boundaries: Learning needs and preferences in clerkship medical environments

Relationships and boundaries: Learning needs and preferences in clerkship medical environments

Cancer patients’ needs for virtues and physicians’ characteristics in physician-patient communication: a survey among patient representatives

Counter-Transference and the Clinical Ethics Encounter: What, Why, and How We Feel During Consultations

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