Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education
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As the number of individuals surviving cancer continues to rise, short- and long-term effects of cancer and its treatment that result in physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs unique to the care of the cancer survivor has not been addressed in nursing curricula. The Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2005) recommends that all health care providers are educated on the care of cancer survivors. This descriptive qualitative study explored faculty beliefs and practices regarding the inclusion of caring for the cancer survivor in undergraduate nursing curricula. ⋯ Seven themes emerged from the content analysis of the interviews. These were as follows: (1) descriptions of cancer survivorship; (2) beliefs on inclusion of cancer survivorship care within undergraduate nursing curriculum; (3) established content on cancer survivorship care: teaching practices; (4) gaps in content on cancer survivorship care; (5) lack of supportive literature on cancer survivorship care; (6) clinical sites providing opportunities for cancer survivorship care: planned versus unplanned; and (7) barriers and facilitators to the inclusion of cancer survivorship in undergraduate nursing curricula. This study reveals the need for faculty education on the care of cancer survivors and a revision of undergraduate curriculum content.
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The Internet is one of the major sources for health information for patients and their families, particularly when patients face serious life-threatening conditions such as kidney cancer in adults. In this study, we evaluate the content and quality of health information on adult kidney cancer using several validated instruments. We accessed the three most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), using two terms: "kidney cancer" and "renal cell carcinoma," and reviewed the top 30 hits. ⋯ The content and quality of health-related information on the Internet for adult kidney cancer are variable in comprehensiveness and quality. Many websites are difficult to read without a high school education. A standardized approach to presenting cancer information on the Internet for patients and families may be warranted.
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The purpose of this study is to improve comprehension about how adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer use the Internet and social networks to seek information about their illness and to establish relationships between them. A group of 20 AYA patients and survivors of cancer (ages 14 to 29) were interviewed from a qualitative approach. Most of the respondents (N = 16) sought information about their disease on the Internet. ⋯ AYAs with cancer are starting to create content themselves: three started a blog in order to explain their experience to others like them. The study shows that is necessary to increase efforts on adapting content to these age groups in order to help them learn more about their own disease. This may contribute to increment their adherence to treatment and to maintain surveillance of potential consequences and health problems post-treatment.