Priorities, barriers and facilitators for remote support of cancer symptoms: A survey of Canadian oncology nurses

Gail Macartney, Dawn Stacey, Meg Carley, Margaret B. Harrison

Abstract


A survey of 368 Canadian oncology nurses revealed that 54% provided remote support to oncology patients. The most common symptoms identified were fatigue, pain, nausea, constipation, and anxiety. Frequent symptoms which nurses felt low confidence in managing were anxiety, neuropathy, depression, anorexia and skin alterations. Most nurses agreed that guidelines were needed that were accessible, and improved continuity of care. Forty-three per cent of respondents felt that existing guidelines were inadequate for complex symptoms. Only 54% of respondents agreed they had received enough symptom management training. Common barriers included time constraints, obtaining accurate patient information via telephone, high workloads and knowledge or training deficits. Facilitating factors for provision of remote support included access to an electronic health record, accessible team members, available technology and ease of documentation.


Full Text:

PDF

References


Barbera, L., Seow, H., Howell, D., Sutradhar, R., Earle, C., Liu, Y.,

et al. (2010). Symptom burden and performance status in a

population-based cohort of ambulatory cancer patients. Cancer,

(24), 5767–5776.

Barsevick, A.M. (2007). The elusive concept of the symptom cluster.

Oncology Nursing Forum, 34(5), 971–980.

Black, K.L. (2007). Standardization of telephone triage in pediatric

oncology. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 24(4), 190–199.

College of Nurses of Ontario Practice Guidelines. (2005). Telepractice.

Ottawa: College of Nurses of Ontario, Pub. No. 41041.

Conley, S.B., O’Hanlon Curry, J., Hines, M., Baker, K., Schmidt,

K., Zwier, K., Siever B., … Kline, N.E. Association of Pediatric

Hematology/Oncology Nursing. (2010). Consensus statements:

Ambulatory pediatric oncology nursing practice. Journal of

Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 27(1), 6–9.

Dillman, D.A. (2000). Mail and Internet surveys: The tailored design.

New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Dodd, M., Janson, S., Facione, N., Faucett, J., Froelicher, E. S.,

Humphreys, J., et al. (2001). Advancing the science of symptom

management. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 33(5), 668–676.

Dodd, M.J., Miaskowski, C., & Lee, K.A. (2004). Occurrence of

symptom clusters. Journal of the National Cancer Institute,

Monographs(32), 76–78.

Goodwin, S. (2007). Telephone nursing: An emerging practice area.

Nursing Leadership, 20(4), 37–45.

Graham, I., Harrison, M.B., Moffat, C., & Franks, P. (2001). Leg ulcer

care: Nursing attitudes and knowledge. The Canadian Nurse,

(3), 19–24.

Graham. I., & Logan, J. (2004). Innovations in knowledge transfer

and continuity of care. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research,

, 89–103.

Holmstrom, I., & Hoglund, A.T. (2007). The faceless encounter:

Ethical dilemmas in telephone nursing. Journal of Clinical

Nursing, 16(10), 1865–1871.

Mayo, A.M., Chang, B.L., & Omery, A. (2002). Use of protocols and

guidelines by telephone nurses. Clinical Nursing Research, 11(2),

–219.

Miaskowski, C., Dodd, M., & Lee, K. (2004). Symptom clusters: The

new frontier in symptom management research. Journal of the

National Cancer Institute, Monographs, (32), 17–21.

Molassiotis, A., Wengstrom, Y., & Kearney, N. (2010). Symptom

cluster patterns during the first year after diagnosis with cancer.

Journal of Pain & Symptom Management, 39(5), 847–858.

Richard, M.L., Parmar, M.P., Calestagne, P.P., & McVey, L. (2010).

Seeking patient feedback: An important dimension of quality in

cancer care. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 25(4), 344–351.

Stacey, D., Bakker, D., Green, E., Zanchetta, M., & Conlon, M. (2007).

Ambulatory oncology nursing telephone services: A provincial

survey. Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal, 17(4), 186(e1–5).

Stacey, D., Graham, I., O’Connor, A.M., & Pomey, M.P. (2005). Barriers

and facilitators influencing call centre nurses’ decisions support

for callers facing values-sensitive decisions: A mixed methods

study. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 2(4), 184–195.

Stacey, D., Noorani, H., Fisher, A., Robinson, D., Joyce, J., & Pong,

R. (2003). Telephone triage services: Systematic review of the

literature and survey of Canadian call centres program. Ottawa:

Canadian Coordinating Office of Health Technology Assessment.

Wilson, R., & Hubert, J. (2002). Resurfacing the care in nursing by

telephone: Lessons from ambulatory oncology. Nursing Outlook,

(4), 160–164.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share