How Retail Therapy Week Will Help Oncology Nurses Deliver Survivorship Care Across America
By Jennifer R. Klemp, Ph.D., MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Oncology
Associate Director, Breast Cancer Survivorship Center
University of Kansas Medical Center
Oncology nurses play a vital role in helping patients complete their cancer treatment while maintaining the highest possible quality of life. Nurses have the most contact with cancer survivors of any other health professional group, providing day-to-day care during acute treatment and also over the continuum of follow-up care.
After the initial cancer treatment course has been completed, patients need on-going screening and care for late and long-term effects of the initial cancer and its treatment, for recurrences and for new cancers. Oncology nurses help coordinate the collaboration in care between oncologists and primary care providers to help assure that survivors receive cancer follow-up care as well as preventive services and treatment for noncancer-related health problems.
Many oncology nurses report a lack of training and expertise in providing survivorship care, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the Oncology Nursing Society in collaboration with the University of Kansas Breast Cancer Survivorship Center. Based on the survey findings and national recommendations for survivorship care, Back in the Swing will support the development and implementation of evidence-based continuing education resources for nurses and those who provide frontline care for cancer patients accessible via the web to providers everywhere across the United States beginning in 2011. In addition, these modules will be highlighted along with our research findings at the 2011 Spring Congress of the National Oncology Nursing Society held in Boston, MA, where I will present along with my colleague from the University of Kansas Cancer Center, Cathy Glennon, RN, MHS, OCN, and Mary McCabe, RN, MSN, OCN, from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
One of the current challenges in providing continuing medical education according to the Institutes of Medicine is quality, cost, and accessibility. These modules will provide an effective and efficient opportunity for oncology nurses in every community to learn how to implement this new kind of survivorship care. This care, that has heretofore been available in only a few academic cancer centers, will now be accessible to breast cancer survivors where they live.
Thank you for your support of Survivorship Training Modules and the needs for improving the access to quality survivorship care across the country.