Training Oncology Professionals in Key Communication Skills: Adapting Psychodrama and Sociodrama for Experiential Learning

Abstract

The authors describe how sociodramatic methods were applied to teaching communication skills to professionals in a comprehensive cancer center. The article briefly reviews the importance of communication skills in oncology and the challenges in teaching key skills such as empathy and addressing emotions. It indicates how action methods can be applied to enact case scenarios generated by groups attending communication-skills workshops. It describes the advantages of action methods over other techniques for teaching communication skills in the medical setting. It suggests how these methods might be more widely disseminated among teachers of medical communication skills.

Psychodrama and Social Work Theory

“…The protagonist is then provided with an opportunity to try these different communication approaches and/or experience them from the role-reversed position. Psychodrama as a process is used in a variety of fields to teach communication skills to clients (Corsini, 2017;Dayton, 2005), students (Joyner & Young, 2009), social workers (Konopik & Cheung, 2013), lawyers (Cole, 2001), medical professionals (Baile & Blatner, 2014;Walters & Baile, 2014), and others.…”