Vertrouwen van Turkse en Arabische allochtonen in hun oncoloog

Objective

To examine the nature of the trust that Turkish and Arabic ethnic minority patients suffering from cancer have in their oncologist, and to explore how this trust is established.

Design

Semi-structured qualitative interviews

Method

We interviewed 9 cancer patients with Turkish and Arabic backgrounds about the trust they have in their oncologist.

Results

The trust that these patients have in their oncologist seemed to evolve gradually over time. According to the patients, three specific elements seemed to promote trust. Firstly, patients attached importance to a strongly proactive physician approach, even in the palliative phase when treatment was no longer indicated. A wait-and-see attitude was perceived by patients as a lack of willingness to help, and was detrimental to their trust. Secondly, patients indicated that they needed their oncologist to reassure them and avoided discussing depressing topics, so that they would not give up hope. Finally, the oncologist’s non-verbal communication, particularly his or her facial expression, contributed to patients’ trust.

Conclusion

Among these Turkish and Arabic ethnic minority cancer patients, trust in the physician appeared not to be self-evident, and might to some extent need to be ‘earned’ by oncologists. Because of these patients’ great need for a proactive attitude, it is desirable that oncologists clearly explain their motivation when choosing for a possibly less active approach. In order to preserve hope, it is important that oncologists discover exactly what their patients’ information needs are. The results of this explorative, small-scale study may help physicians to optimise the trust that Turkish and Arabic ethnic minority patients have in them.

Conflict of interest and financial support: disclosure forms provided by the authors are available along with the full text of this article at www.ntvg.nl; search for A5881, click on ‘Belangenverstrengeling’ (‘Conflict of interest’). Financial support for this article: the authors received a grant from the Dutch Cancer Society (grant number: CJ451001).