ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psycho-Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Psychological Care for Oncology and Palliative Settings: A Holistic ApproachView all 23 articles
Association Between an Oncology Psychology Course and Caring Ability Improvements in Postgraduate Medical Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
- 2Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
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Background: Cancer patients experience significant psychological distress that requires healthcare providers with well-developed caring abilities. Medical education traditionally underemphasizes humanistic competencies, particularly in oncology contexts. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a specialized oncology psychology course on the caring ability of postgraduate medical students specializing in clinical medicine. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-post design was used with a sample of 32 postgraduate medical students who completed both pre- and post-course assessments. The study was conducted at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, from September 2024 to January 2025. The oncology psychology course incorporating theoretical foundations, psychological assessment, intervention strategies, and clinical applications through multimodal pedagogy including lectures, case discussions, standardized patient simulations, and clinical observations. The Caring Ability Inventory (CAI) was used to measure caring ability across three dimensions (Knowing, Courage, and Patience) before and after the course. Paired t-tests and independent samples t-tests were employed to analyze data using SPSS version 23.0. Results: A total of 32 students completed both assessments. The total CAI score increased significantly from pre-course to post-course (188.53±20.74 vs. 197.53±22.75, P<0.001). Significant improvements were observed in all three dimensions: Knowing (71.72±8.95 vs. 75.97±10.15, P<0.001), Courage (57.69±10.50 vs. 60.31±10.71, P<0.001), and Patience (59.13±5.34 vs. 61.30±5.47, P<0.001). Female students demonstrated consistently higher Patience dimension scores than males both before and after the course (P<0.05). Student leaders showed superior total CAI and Courage dimension scores compared to non-leaders at both time points (P<0.05). Conclusions: The oncology psychology course was associated with significant improvements in caring ability among postgraduate medical students across all dimensions. The findings support the integration of specialized psycho-oncology curricula in medical education and highlight the importance of considering demographic factors in educational design. This evidence-based approach to developing caring competencies addresses critical gaps in preparing future oncologists for patient-centered care.
Keywords: oncology, Psychology, Students, Empathy, Medical Education
Received: 27 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hua, Xiao, Wu, Chen, Du, Xie and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Heng-Wen Sun, sunhengwen@gdph.org.cn
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