Abstract

Improving psychosocial support skills in cancer care staff can contribute to improved staff wellbeing alongside benefitting patients with mental health problems. There are well-evidenced programmes to support this. However, many education programmes for psychosocial skills in cancer care (e.g., advanced communication skills training) have protocols that can be too lengthy to implement alongside training more directly related to cancer diagnosis and treatment. An innovative education programme was trialled to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of psychosocial support skill acquisition and implementation among cancer care clinicians. This programme was novel in its incorporation of deliberate practice (DP): An approach used to achieve expertise in disciplines such as sport and music. The programme was attended by 145 cancer care clinicians who reported improvements in psychosocial assessment and intervention skills at 8-month follow-up from pre-training with a very large effect size. Clinicians also reported significant improvements in mental wellbeing, work engagement, and burnout.