Qualitative Evaluation of Care Plans for Canadian Breast and Head-and-Neck Cancer Survivors

Abstract

advance, auto-populating the templates for the nurses, and creating summary pages for physicians. ConclusionsThe results suggest ways in which scps could help to improve the transition to cancer survivorship and provide starting points for larger feasibility studies.

Information Needs and Sources of Information for Patients during Cancer Follow-Up

“…The U.S. Institute of Medicine called for patients completing their primary treatment for cancer-and for their primary care providers-to be provided with a treatment summary and comprehensive plan for follow-up, with the intent of providing guidance on follow-up care, prevention, and health maintenance 26 . A recent evaluation of the care plans of 36 breast cancer survivors and 21 head-and-neck cancer survivors in Alberta, including interviews with the physicians, nurses, and patients involved, suggested that care plans can enhance communication between survivors and care providers and that survivors appreciate individualized attention and comprehensiveness in a care plan 27 . The importance of providing cancer survivors with individualized information has been reported elsewhere 28,29 .…”

Alberta CancerBridges Development of a Care Plan Evaluation Measure

“…For many cancer survivors, ending active treatment leads to uncertainty about their risk of recurrence and the organization of their care moving forward 1,2 . To address these concerns, oncology providers in the United States are mandated at the end of curative-intent treatment to clarify for patients what comes next through the provision of survivor care plans (scps) 3 .…”

“…The Institute of Medicine (iom) report on cancer survivorship 2 strongly encouraged post-treatment individualized scps to enhance coordinated and quality care while addressing survivors' and primary care providers' (pcps') transition concerns. An scp contains individualized diagnostic and treatment details, follow-up and surveillance guidelines, symptoms of recurrence to monitor, information on health behaviour, coping, and resources 1,2,4 , and some include specific tools supporting health-behaviour-change planning or self-management 1 . Although no jurisdiction or accreditor mandates delivery, Canadian provincial oncology centres are beginning to offer and evaluate scps 1,5,6 .…”

“…An scp contains individualized diagnostic and treatment details, follow-up and surveillance guidelines, symptoms of recurrence to monitor, information on health behaviour, coping, and resources 1,2,4 , and some include specific tools supporting health-behaviour-change planning or self-management 1 . Although no jurisdiction or accreditor mandates delivery, Canadian provincial oncology centres are beginning to offer and evaluate scps 1,5,6 . While scp research has grown, best practices for patient and provider assessment and scp delivery post-treatment remain unclear or not broadly instituted 2,7,8 .…”

“…While scp research has grown, best practices for patient and provider assessment and scp delivery post-treatment remain unclear or not broadly instituted 2,7,8 . A developing literature supports the use of scps [9][10][11][12][13][14] , and describes optimal content, formats 4,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] , and key-stakeholders' views 1,23,24 , but methods of evaluating scps and their impact on stakeholders are just emerging 4,[25][26][27][28][29][30] .…”