Creating and maintaining 'optimism' in cancer care communication

This study investigates nurse-patient communication in the cancer care cont ext. Interviews with nurses and patients about their communication experien ces and audio-recorded nurse-patient conversations were collected and analy sed. A theme of 'optimism' largely manifesting as 'constructive realism' wa s one of four features identified by the qualitative analysis. The health p rofessional has traditionally been viewed as the party with the power and c ontrol over conversation progression and topics. In particular, the superfi cial, positive and chatty nature of nurse-patient interaction has often bee n attributed to a lack of nurses' communication skills training. This resea rch indicates that both patient and nurse are active in its construction an d argues that the optimistic cheerful nature of nurse-patient interaction m ay be better viewed as a jointly produced institutional feature of cancer c are. This paper illustrates and examines some of the ways this outcome was created and maintained by participants and discusses the implications of th is. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.