Psychotherapeutic Exploration of working in Psycho-oncology

Psycho-oncology involves different professions working together to provide holistic care for cancer patients. Psycho-oncology as a newly established subspecialty of oncology caters for the psychosocial needs of cancer patients. The integration of professionals is an attribute of psycho-oncology, seeing the inclusion of nurses, doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and in small numbers, psychotherapists. The character of the work with patients dying of cancer can have a significant impact on the individual professionals, bringing to question their own mortality and exercising their own compassion which can lead to certain dynamics such as performance or death anxiety, and denial of impact, which all affects the functioning of multidisciplinary teamwork. This qualitative study presents a psychotherapeutic exploration of the impact of working on multidisciplinary teams (MDT's) in psycho-oncology, which was examined through the experience of five professionals working in psycho-oncology. This study analysed the aspects of working with vulnerability, self and other, in the psycho-oncology wards.