Co-Investigator - Prof Dame Lesley Fallowfield
Co-Investigator - Prof Val Jenkins
Data Manager - Shirley May
Data Manager - Dr Ruth Habibi
Funder: BCRF
Sponsor: Sussex University
Many cancer clinicians and nurses are not experienced in genetic testing and many genetic counsellors are not experienced in oncology, yet with mainstreaming of genetic testing becoming more widely adpoted, all HCPs may be faced with challenging communication about genetic risk with patients and their relatives.
The TRUSTING educational programme was developed to help all HCPs with these difficult conversations. The content of the workshops was developed following literature reviews, interviews with patients and families, geneticists, genetic counsellors, surgeons and oncologists.
The workshops include a lecture about the psychology of risk and uncertainty, a filmed interview with a geneticist about pathogenic variants and implications for the proband and her relatives; exercises exploring participants' own numeracy skills, their tolerance of uncertainty and self-confidence when discussing different aspects of BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing and results, and facilitator-led group discussion of filmed scenarios with members of a fictitious family in which the proband had triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and a BRCA2 pathogenic variant.
Participants in the workshops were asked to complete pre an post workshop questionnaires to measure their knowledge and confidence discussing the topic with patients to evaluate the impact of the workshop.
Current Stage:
In follow-up