The primary aim of this training proposal is to prepare professional nurses from cancer settings to competently provide and coordinate care for cancer survivors. By the year 2020 there will be approximately 20 million cancer survivors, all who will need prevention and surveillance activities, interventions for cancer and cancer treatment related concerns, and recommendations for follow up care for the reminder of their lives. Resources for this essential care are stretching the oncology workforce capabilities. Professional nurses have demonstrated the ability to address these problems, and help develop cancer survivor programs. The primary aim will be achieved through four annual workshops, 2 on the West Coast and 2 on the East Coast each for 50 competitively-selected professional nurses, for a total of 200 participants. Participants will be selected from cancer settings, including National Cancer Institute Designated Clinical and Comprehensive Cancer Centers, members of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, and ambulatory cancer settings, including physician offices.
The specific aims of the project are to 1) Refine the cancer survivorship curriculum for training professional nurses in new and/or expanding roles in cancer survivorship care, 2) Implement the survivorship curriculum for nursing national workshops to competitively selected nurses from a variety of cancer settings, 3) Develop and interact with a network of course participants to share their experiences in implementation of the survivorship curriculum for nursing post workshops, 4) Evaluate the impact of the survivorship curriculum for nursing on improved survivorship care in their respective cancer settings, and 5) Disseminate results of the cancer survivorship curriculum for nursing. This project builds on the investigators previous experience with cancer education on palliative and end-of-life care, and interdisciplinary survivorship care. It brings together expertise from City of Hope with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, via a subcontract to Mary McCabe, RN, MA, who has been a leader in having nurses develop and maintain survivorship activities in MSKCC. Courses with be held on the West Coast in years 1 and 3, and on the East Coast in years 2 and 4, providing access to potential participants from across the country. Expert faculty and consultants have agreed to participate.
The overall purpose of this educational program is to prepare professional nurses to competently provide and coordinate care for cancer survivors. This program is built around the four recommended IOM components of a survivorship program: Prevention and Detection, Surveillance for new and recurrent cancers, Interventions to Meet the Consequences of Cancer and Cancer Treatment, and Coordination of Care. The three-day program will integrate adult learning principles into lectures, discussions, small group work, demonstrations, and hands-on experience. Evaluation will be conducted 6, 12, and 18 months post course.
| Economou, Denice; Grant, Marcia; McCabe, Mary (2012) Cancer survivorship websites and resources. J Adv Pract Oncol 3:170-3 |
