The primary aim of this training proposal is to improve quality of care and quality of life for cancer survivors. As of January 2007, there are an estimated 9.8 million cancer survivors representing 3.5% of the population. As cancer survival has increased steadily over the last decades, it is estimated that 60% of adults diagnosed today will be alive five years later. The emerging data on long-term complications of cancer treatment have led to a variety of approaches to increase surveillance and follow-up care for cancer survivors and their family members. Efficient dissemination of successful approaches to assure quality care for cancer survivors is needed. The primary aim of this proposal will be achieved through four annual workshops for two representatives each from 50 cancer treatment centers. Thus a total of 400 participants is planned. Additional dissemination methods and an extensive evaluation will provide a basis for the continuing education of health care professionals beyond the project period.
Specific aims to be accomplished are to: (1) Create the cancer survivorship curriculum for training an interdisciplinary professional audience from cancer centers. (2) Implement the survivorship curriculum in national workshops to competitively selected staff from National Cancer Institute-designated clinical and comprehensive cancer centers, and community cancer centers as identified through the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC). (3) Develop a network of course participants to share experiences in dissemination of the survivorship curriculum to the staff of participating cancer centers. (4) Evaluate the impact of the survivorship curriculum on participants' and cancer center staffs' implementation of individual goals for improved care for cancer survivors in respective cancer centers. (5) Describe successes and issues related to dissemination of cancer survivorship care in cancer centers in terms of the characteristics of individual course participants, interdisciplinary teams, and institutions. The project builds on the investigators' previous experience with similar national workshops on pain management, palliative care education for home care nursing staff, a nursing end-of-life (EOL) curriculum developed with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) and Dissemination of End-of-Life Education to Cancer Centers (DELEtCC). A national group of leading experts have enthusiastically agreed to be faculty. ? ? ? ?
| Grant, Marcia; Economou, Denice; Ferrell, Betty et al. (2015) Facilitating survivorship program development for health care providers and administrators. J Cancer Surviv 9:180-7 |
| Grant, Marcia; Economou, Denice; Ferrell, Betty et al. (2012) Educating health care professionals to provide institutional changes in cancer survivorship care. J Cancer Educ 27:226-32 |
| Grant, Marcia; Economou, Denice; Ferrell, Betty Rolling (2010) Oncology nurse participation in survivorship care. Clin J Oncol Nurs 14:709-15 |
| Grant, Marcia; Economou, Denice (2008) The evolving paradigm of adult cancer survivor care. Oncology (Williston Park) 22:13-22, 27 |
| Grant, Marcia; Economou, Denice; Ferrell, Betty et al. (2007) Preparing professional staff to care for cancer survivors. J Cancer Surviv 1:98-106 |
