Psychosocial Support Services/Assessment
Research has consistently found that caregivers for people with cancer report distress; however, it is not clear whether recent improvements in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) have reduced caregiver burden.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) 2013 report recommends that supportive oncology care start at cancer diagnosis; the Commission on Cancer (CoC) Standard 3.2 requires distress screening and indicated action.
The burden of cancer has largely focused on the patient. However, caregivers also experience considerable burden.
Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is a supportive therapy that is currently underutilized in the outpatient oncology setting.
The World Health Organization describes the impact of cancer-related disability on activities of daily living and function according to patent-reported outcomes and QOL measures, and identifies unmet needs for people with impairments due to cancer.
The Evidence into Practice Committee offers their quarterly newsletter discussing the impact navigators can have on strengthening the physical and psychosocial adjustment to a cancer diagnosis by identifying and promoting effective coping strategies.
Kimberly Foster, MBA, BSN, RN, Marian E. Gilmore, RN, OCN, Pamela Goetz, BA, OPN-CG, Barbara R. McHale, RN, BS, OCN, CBCN, ONN-CG
The authors discuss how nurse navigators, patient navigators, and social workers can collaborate to fill vital roles in direct patient psychosocial care and develop processes and procedures that improve delivery of that care.
Cancer patients choose multiple ways to afford their treatment, which may include making the decisions to not fill prescriptions, not take medications as prescribed, or change their lifestyle to choose groceries instead of treatment.
Mikele Bunce, PhD, MPH, Adrianne W. Casebeer, PhD, MPP, MS, Dana Drzayich, Antol, MS, Sari Hopson, PhD, MSPH, Raya Khoury, MPH, Todd Michael, PharmD, RPh, Aparna Parikh, MD, Alisha Stein, RN-BC, MSN, OCN, Stephen Stemkowski, PhD, MHA
Research suggests that medication adherence improves quality of life. This study explored the influence of social support (SS) on the relationship between comorbidity medication adherence (CMA) and health-related quality of life for patients with cancer.
The objective of this analysis was to investigate whether traveling long distances to a cancer treatment facility increased self-reported distress among veterans treated for head and neck cancer.