Healthcare providers’ perceptions on barriers to the provision of psychosocial cancer care at Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Patients with cancer experience substantial psychosocial challenges throughout the cancer journey. Psychosocial cancer care is crucial for addressing patients' psychological, emotional, social, spiritual needs, and for promoting well-being and quality of life. Despite its importance, psychosocial cancer care services remain insufficiently provided within routine cancer care services in many settings. AIM OF THE STUDY: To explore healthcare providers' perceptions of barriers to providing psychosocial cancer care services within routine care at a tertiary cancer hospital in Tanzania. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study adopted an explorative qualitative design. This study was conducted at Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 18 healthcare providers until information saturation was reached. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using a thematic analysis approach to identify key patterns and themes. RESULTS: Three themes emerged that describe health care providers' perceptions of barriers to the provision of psychosocial cancer care. These barriers include inadequately trained healthcare providers, an unsupportive organizational structure and environment for psychosocial care services, and challenges in establishing a trusting therapeutic relationship between patients and providers. CONCLUSION: Despite its recognized importance in promoting quality of life, the provision of psychosocial cancer care remains insufficiently provided in cancer settings. Findings from this study indicate that psychosocial care provision is limited by inadequate and incompetent staff, a lack of coordination, and an unsupportive organizational structure, and that building effective patient-provider therapeutic relationships was reported to hinder the provision of psychosocial care. To address these barriers, training, the establishment of coordinating units, and the development of protocols to guide the multidisciplinary team are essential. Integrating psychosocial care competencies into healthcare professionals' training curriculum is also essential to bridge the gap.