Scanxiety in survivors of pancreatic cancer.

Purpose: To understand the scanxiety experience in pancreatic cancer (PC) survivors following curative surgical resection.

Design: A qualitative study with a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used.

Methods: Eighteen PC survivors participated.

An integrative review of adolescent trust in the healthcare provider relationship.

Aim: To conduct an integrative review of empirical studies examining factors affecting trust in the healthcare provider (HCP) relationship among adolescents.

Design: An integrative review was conducted.

Data Sources: The keywords adolescent, trust, healthcare provider and related words were searched in multiple online research databases.

Understanding Culture in Context: An Important Next Step for Patient Emotional Well-Being and Nursing.

The impact of culture on health has gained considerable importance in care delivery. This review discusses the complex interaction of culture and social determinants, and the combined impact of these on emotional well-being. Examples of this interaction are presented and recommendations for change within nursing to improve care are discussed.

Preparing Nursing Students for Interprofessional Practice: The Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Oncology Palliative Care Education.

Interprofessional educational experiences for baccalaureate nursing students are essential to prepare them for interprofessional communication, collaboration, and team work. Nurse educators are ideally positioned to develop and lead such initiatives. The purpose of this article is to describe the development and implementation of an interprofessional education (IPE) project involving students in nursing, medicine, social work, and chaplaincy.

Pathways to a lung cancer diagnosis.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to identify and describe pathways to a lung cancer diagnosis based on narratives of persons diagnosed with the disease.

Data Sources: Eleven adults with lung cancer were recruited from an academic thoracic oncology clinic in a large city in the southeastern United States. Moderately structured interviews were conducted by an experienced nurse practitioner (NP) to obtain information regarding the participants' experiences leading to their diagnosis.

Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Curriculum Teaching Team-Based Palliative Care Integration in Oncology.

For students of the health care professions to succeed in today's health care environment, they must be prepared to collaborate with other professionals and practice on interdisciplinary teams. As most will care for patients with cancer, they must also understand the principles of palliative care and its integration into oncology. This article reports the success of one university's effort to design and implement an interdisciplinary curriculum teaching team-based palliative care in oncology which was mandatory for medical, nursing, social work, and chaplaincy students.

The Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Oncology Palliative Care Education (iCOPE): meeting the challenge of interprofessional education.

Unlabelled: Background: Interprofessional education is necessary to prepare students of the health professions for successful practice in today's health care environment. Because of its expertise in interdisciplinary practice and team-based care, palliative care should be leading the way in creating educational opportunities for students to learn the skills for team practice and provision of quality patient-centered care. Multiple barriers exist that can discourage those desiring to create and implement truly interdisciplinary curriculum.

Lung cancer stigma predicts timing of medical help-seeking behavior.

Purpose/objectives: To examine relationships among demographic variables, healthcare system distrust, lung cancer stigma, smoking status, and timing of medical help-seeking behavior in individuals with symptoms suggestive of lung cancer after controlling for ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and social desirability.

Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study.

Setting: Outpatient oncology clinics in Louisville, KY.

Use of the Distress Thermometer to discern clinically relevant quality of life differences in women with breast cancer.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the ability of Distress Thermometer (DT) scores to discern important differences in quality of life scores among women with breast cancer.

Methods: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network's DT, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B), and a demographic questionnaire were completed by 111 women recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Results: Patients considered moderately to severely distressed (score ≥ 4 on DT) scored significantly lower on FACT-B QOL scales and subscales when compared to those in the group scoring 3 or below.

Determinants of quality of life in patients near the end of life: a longitudinal perspective.

Purpose/objectives: to describe the quality of life (QOL) of patients near the end of life and to identify determinants of their QOL.

Design: descriptive, longitudinal.

Setting: university-affiliated cancer center, two private oncologists' offices, and patients' homes.

An evidence-based practice primer for infusion nurses.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the process of using current, best evidence to guide nursing care and improve patient outcomes. This article discusses the differences between research and EBP, reviews the process of EBP, and applies EBP guidelines to central catheter infections, a clinical problem relevant to infusion nursing.

Enhancing cancer nursing education through school of nursing partnerships: the Cancer Nursing Faculty Fellows Program.

This article describes the Cancer Nursing Faculty Fellows Program, an innovative program designed to provide nurse educators with state-of-the-art cancer knowledge to enhance their ability to teach cancer content. The Faculty Fellows Program was developed at the University of Louisville School of Nursing and was part of a multifaceted educational intervention to improve cancer nursing education. This intervention included comprehensive curriculum reviews, conferences with national consultants, cancer-specific faculty seminars, and funded instructional projects.

Initiating and sustaining a standardized pain management program in long-term care facilities.

Objectives: To identify current pain management practices in the long-term care setting; and, implement and evaluate a comprehensive pain management program in the long-term care setting.

Design: An interventional pilot study.

Setting: Community-based long-term care facilities.

The degree to which spiritual needs of patients near the end of life are met.

Purpose/objectives: To determine to what degree the spiritual needs of patients near the end of life are met.

Design: Descriptive.

Setting: One inpatient and five outpatient hospices.

The Caring Connections Project: Providing palliative care to Medicaid patients with advanced cancer.

Palliative care, with its focus on symptom management, patient-centered goals, preparation for life's end, and preservation of quality of life in the face of advancing illness, is a rapidly advancing component of mainstream American medicine. Yet, access to palliative care is often lacking in the community setting and may be further hindered by the presence of healthcare disparities that impact the poor. This article presents a unique approach to assuring the availability of palliative care to Medicaid patients receiving case management services.

A community partnership model for developing a Center for Cancer Nursing Education and Research.

This article describes a partnership model used to establish the Center for Cancer Nursing Education and Research at the University of Louisville (U of L) School of Nursing. The model was used to bring together area nursing education programs, institutions providing cancer nursing care, and related community groups. The need for the project was directly related to the high cancer morbidity and mortality in the community.

Development and testing of the spiritual needs inventory for patients near the end of life.

Purpose/objectives: To develop and test an instrument to measure the spiritual needs of patients near the end of life.

Design: Instrumentation methodology.

Setting: One inpatient and five outpatient hospices.

Kentucky's palliative care report card.

Last Acts released the first nationwide evaluation of palliative care services in November 2002. Each state was evaluated or "graded" on the following eight measures: advance care planning policies, location of death, hospice use, hospital end-of-life care services, care in ICUs at the end of life, pain among nursing home residents, state pain policies, and palliative care certified physicians and nurses. Kentucky scored well on state pain policies and number of nurses certified in palliative care but received low grades for hospital services and the number of patient deaths occurring in the home.