Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education
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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.
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The post-graduate medical programs at Queen's University transitioned to a competency-based medical education framework on July 1, 2017. In advance of this transition, the Medical Oncology program participated in a pilot of six Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) focused workplace-based assessment (WBA) tools with faculty and residents. The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed method study was to determine the extent to which these WBAs provided quality feedback for residents. ⋯ Six main findings emerged: Verbal feedback is preferred over written; providing both written and verbal feedback is important; effective feedback was seen as timely, specific, and actionable; the process was conceptualized as coaching rather than high stakes; there were logistical concerns about the WBAs, and additional clarification about the WBA tools is needed. This study provides insight into faculty and resident perceptions of quality feedback and the potential for WBA tools to assist in providing effective feedback to residents as we shift to competency-based medical education in Canada. Our results suggest the need for additional faculty development around the use of the tools, and their intended role, and the elements of quality feedback.
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The current study evaluated the oncology nurse's knowledge, attitude, related factors of cancer-related pain management (CPM), and clinical recommendations for improving knowledge and attitude. In this systematic review, international databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of science (WOS), Science Direct, and Scopus) were searched for relevant studies published in English language from March 30, 2000 to March 30, 2018. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the Hoy instrument. ⋯ The important clinical recommendations for improving nurses' levels of knowledge included the implementation of educational programs (n = 9), training programs (n = 3) on CPM and including CPM topics in nursing curricula (n = 5). This systematic review showed that most nurses had poor knowledge of CPM and a fair attitude toward CPM, indicating the importance of considering the barriers to knowledge, strengthening the positive relevant factors, and using clinical recommendations based on clinical guidelines such as including CPM topics in nursing curricula and implementing educational programs on CPM to improve the knowledge, attitude, and skills of oncology nurses. The results of the present study could be used by policymakers to provide care for cancer patients and manage their pain.
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Radiation oncologists in Russia face a number of unique professional difficulties including lack of standardized training and continuing medical education. To combat this, under the auspices of the Russian Society of Clinical Oncology (RUSSCO), our group has developed a series of ongoing in-person interactive contouring workshops that are held during the major Russian oncology conferences in Moscow, Russia. Since November 2016 during each workshop, we utilized a web-based open-access interactive three-dimensional contouring atlas as part of our didactics. ⋯ More than 97% found the clinical pearls/links to cooperative group protocols in the software helpful in their daily practice. The majority used the contouring program several times per month (43%) or several times per week (41%). Face-to-face contouring instruction in combination with open-access web-based interactive contouring resource had a meaningful impact on perceived quality of radiation oncology contours among Russian practitioners and has the potential to have applications worldwide.
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Cancer is a leading cause of death in Australia and is also the leading cause of disease burden as survivorship continues to improve. Given the prevalence of oncology patients in the community, it is likely to be a condition encountered by every junior doctor. ⋯ This means that the junior doctor experience is often complicated by lack of knowledge, poor understanding of the disease process, treatment options and complications and therefore makes managing these patients complicated and often an uncessarily stressful process. This reflective article explores current issues in cancer education, a reflection and comparison between pre- and post-internship experience and offers some potential solutions to these issues.