• Seema King, Aynharan Sinnarajah, Sadia Ahmed, Alessandra Paolucci, Lisa Shirt, Vanessa Slobogian, Chandra Vig, Desiree Hao, Lisa C Barbera, Elizabeth C Kurien, Maria J Santana, Aliyah Pabani, Patricia D Biondo, and Jessica E Simon.
• Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2025 Feb 4.

ContextTimely palliative care can alleviate distress after diagnosis of an incurable cancer. However, late referrals to palliative care continue, reflecting various provider and patient barriers.ObjectiveTo determine patient/caregiver-reported acceptability of a phone call offering a supportive and palliative care (SPC) consultation without requiring oncologist referral.MethodsTwo SPC nurses screened out-patient clinic lists at a tertiary cancer center weekly and called all eligible patients to offer a SPC consultation. Eligibility: >18 years, newly diagnosed/suspected stage IV non-small cell lung cancer and completed first oncologist visit. Patients/caregivers were surveyed about the acceptability of the phone call offering SPC consultation, using Sekhon's Framework of Acceptability domains.ResultsAmong 113 patients screened, 81 patients/caregivers were contacted and offered a SPC consultation; 72% accepted the consultation. Of 48 patients/caregivers surveyed, 94% rated overall acceptability of the call somewhat/completely acceptable; 6% rated it neither acceptable nor unacceptable. Within specific acceptability domains, 95% were comfortable receiving the call; 92% understood why they received the call; 87% found the call valuable; 70% found the call helpful; 66% learned about SPC from the call; no one expressed concern that the SPC nurse had access to their contact/health information; 97% thought the call required little physical/emotional effort and were confident in their ability to participate (i.e., to ask questions/make decisions).ConclusionThese unsolicited phone calls offering SPC consultation were highly acceptable to patients/caregivers, and most agreed to the consultation. Implementing routine calls offering SPC consultation may be a timely alternative to awaiting conventional oncologist referral.Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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