Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education
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Effective communication between providers and patients with serious illness is critical to ensure that treatment is aligned with patient goals. We developed and tested an implementation strategy for incorporating the previously developed Serious Illness Conversation Guide (SICG), a clinician script, into hematology-oncology fellowship training at a single US academic medical center. Between December 2017 and April 2018, we trained 8 oncology fellows to use and document the SICG. ⋯ Thematic analysis of interviews revealed the following: (1) positive training experience, (2) improved patient preference elicitation, (3) selected SICG components used in a single encounter, (4) prioritize other clinical duties, (5) importance of emotion handling skills, (6) no faculty coaching receive outside training. Despite acquisition of communication skills, promoting new clinical behaviors remains challenging. More work is needed to identify which implementation strategies are required in this learner population.
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The purpose of the current study was to characterize the experiences of cancer patients and their caregiver/family members around their relationship with their oncologist, health care team, and the hospital environment. Participants were recruited from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Participant sociodemographic factors were assessed. ⋯ Subthemes highlighted the importance of the flexible communication behaviors and trustworthiness of the oncologist, and the impact of other health care team members. Patients also reported the desire to be engaged in making treatment-related decisions and to include the caregiver/spouse in all stages of cancer care. Understanding the experience of cancer patients in a relationship with their oncologist in the context of the health care team and health care environment will be an important area of future research to provide optimal, tailored patient-centered cancer care.
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The purpose of the present study was to assess the quality of information available on YouTube videos pertaining to thyroid cancer. A search of YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) was performed on February 12, 2018, using the search terms "thyroid cancer" and "thyroid cancer treatment." The first 50 videos that appeared on each search were reviewed and 52 videos were included in the analysis. Videos were independently analyzed by two authors for video characteristics including publishing source of upload, continent of origin, presence of animation, and numbers of views, likes, and dislikes. ⋯ JAMA and DISCERN scores were positively correlated with duration of videos in both reviewer 1 (r = 0.454, p = 0.001 and r = 0.533, p < 0.001, respectively) and reviewer 2 (r = 0.541, p < 0.001 and r = 0.519, p < 0.001, respectively) assessment. In conclusion, our findings revealed poor quality of information provided by YouTube videos pertaining to thyroid cancer based on DISCERN and JAWA scores. Videos with longer duration and higher video power index seem to be associated with higher quality scores, whereas no impact of using animation was shown on quality scores as well as no association between video duration and video power index.
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Cancer pain is a common symptom experienced by patients, caused either by the disease or its treatment. Morphine remains the most effective and recommended treatment for cancer pain. However, cancer patients still do not receive appropriate management for their pain, and under-treatment is common. ⋯ There are still barriers to effective CPM, which might result in unrelieved cancer pain. Therefore, more educational programmes and training for professionals on CPM are needed. Furthermore, patients, caregivers, and the public need more general awareness and adequate level of knowledge about CPM.
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With a growing number of cancer survivors, survivorship care plans (SCPs) are recommended to communicate information about late effects of treatment and follow-up care. Community oncology practices follow 85% of adult cancer survivors but report more difficulty in providing SCPs compared to academic centers. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of delivering SCPs in a community oncology practice by examining awareness of SCP receipt as well as how provision affects survivors' perception of care quality and of their condition. ⋯ Communication about and during SCP provision may need to be clearer: 34% of survivors could not correctly identify SCP receipt in this study. This may place these survivors at a disadvantage, if this leads to less awareness of important information regarding follow-up surveillance and management. Of those aware of SCP receipt, SCP provision had positive impacts in this small, short-term study.