Cancer patients' view on rehabilitation and quality of life: a programme audit

Abstract

An existing 12-week cancer rehabilitation group programme, combining physical training and psychosocial sessions, was recently tested in a quantitative longitudinal cohort study (n = 658) among adult patients who have problems coping with cancer. Results showed improvements in all quality of life domains. The objective of the present study was to explore patients' perspectives on how and to what extent the rehabilitation programme had met their needs in order to optimize the programme. Patients who participated in the programme no longer than 5 years ago were interviewed in three focus groups (n = 23). Participants saw rehabilitation as provided by the programme as an important steppingstone in their ongoing recovery process and identified the integrated physical training, psychosocial sessions and patient-to-patient contacts as a powerful and supportive combination. Recommendations for improvements to the programme mainly concerned the psychosocial module. Information needs varied strongly among participants and, in this respect, it was hard to satisfy all of them. Participants suggested that the programme should focus more on developing skills to cope with cancer, its consequences and emerging problems after rehabilitation. In conclusion, participants valued the group-based multi-modal cancer rehabilitation programme and recommended to focus more on developing coping skills.

Functioning and health in patients with cancer on home-parenteral nutrition: a qualitative study

“…Most relevant were aspects related to the ICF component 'Personal Factors', specifically aspects associated with coping strategies or spiritual meaningfulness of the situation. This is in line with the literature stating that cancer patients describe making sense of their situation and the development of coping skills as the most relevant issues [42,43]. …”

Return-to-work interventions integrated into cancer care: a systematic review

“…This ‘simple’ advice has been given in seven interventions during a group session. A drawback of group sessions is that the constitution of the group determines the significance of discussing return-to-work problems 55. This means that it is important to discuss work issues at the individual level and preferably with a cognitive behavioural component such as has been done in the study of Korstjens et al or Nieuwenhuijsen et al 36 41.…”

The effect of group cohesion on rehabilitation outcome in cancer survivors

“…Recently, interest has been growing in patients' experience with training within groups. Several authors explored the relevance of group processes by means of in-depth interviews and focus groups [8,[15][16][17]. Cancer patients and survivors emphasized the importance of exercising in groups.…”

“…Cancer patients and survivors emphasized the importance of exercising in groups. Participants felt motivated by others to overcome their physical limitations and they experienced reciprocal upwards comparison [8,17]. By exercising in groups, patients were encouraged and challenged to attain physical peak performance [8].…”