A Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Improving Psychosocial Care in Patients With Cancer

The demand for patient-centered care has reinforced the need for a systematic approach to planning appropriate psychosocial services. A proposed strategy to address this need is to use a multidisciplinary team comprised of oncology nurses, physicians, mental health professionals, social workers, ethicists, and other healthcare professionals to provide comprehensive psychosocial care to patients and their families. This article describes key aspects of a broad-based team approach used to develop evidence-based, multidisciplinary practice change that could improve psychosocial care and outcomes.