Managing challenging conversations by telephone with people living with cancer

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Nurses working in cancer care can often find themselves engaged in challenging conversations with patients and their family members or carers. These conversations can cover a range of emotive subjects due to the negative effects of cancer on people and those close to them. Such conversations have become more challenging due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic because increasingly they have had to be conducted over the telephone.This article examines some of the psychological effects of cancer and considers some ways in which nurses can engage in challenging telephone conversations with patients with cancer, including the use of mnemonic frameworks. The article also explores the importance of nurses’ self-care and how this can underpin safe practice.