Implementing the role of patient-navigator nurse at a university hospital centre.

A profile of the role and functions of an oncology patient-navigator nurse (OPN) and the preliminary phases to implementing this role within a team specializing in oncology are first presented. This is followed by a qualitative study that provides a descriptive assessment for implementing an initial OPN in the head and neck oncology area of a university hospital centre (UHC) with a supraregional model for oncology. Three groups of stakeholders (individuals with cancer and families, caregivers, network partners) were interviewed on three occasions: before, during and after implementation.

Cancer preventive screening: a cross-border comparison of United States and Canadian Chinese women.

Objective: To compare screening mammography and Pap testing among Chinese women in Seattle, Washington to Vancouver, and British Columbia.

Methods: Using community-based sampling methods, trilingual female interviewers surveyed Chinese women in Seattle and Vancouver. Multiple preventive health behaviors and health care access variables were assessed.

Health care services and Pap testing behavior for Chinese women in British Columbia.

The health care services and sociodemographic profiles of Chinese women residing in each of five neighborhoods of Vancouver and Richmond, British Columbia, were examined and compared to Pap testing rates. Information was collected from the provincial medical directory, the cervical cancer screening program, and a community-based survey. A total of 159 Chinese primary care physicians, 3 Chinese gynecologists, and 9 health clinics were identified within these neighborhoods and 769 Chinese women responded to the survey.

Carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting effects of cigarette smoke and risk of breast cancer.

Background: Results of epidemiological studies, assessing the relation between smoking and breast cancer, have been inconclusive. Our aim was to assess the carcinogenic and possibly antioestrogenic effects of cigarette smoke on risk of breast cancer.

Methods: We sent a questionnaire to 1431 women younger than age 75 years who had breast cancer and were listed on the population-based British Columbia cancer registry between June 1, 1988, and June 30, 1989.

Assessment of adult cancer pain: shortcomings of current methods.

The evaluation of cancer pain remains a problematic clinical problem, not only due to the subjective and multidimensional nature of pain per se, but also because of its specific characteristics. Cancer pain has an insidious onset, often involves many sites, and is frequently multicausal. Tools have been developed to quantify pain, the most commonly used being the verbal rating scale (VRS), the visual analogue scale (VAS), and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPO).