The impact of specialized oncology nursing on patient supportive care outcomes.

Meeting the supportive care needs of cancer patients remains a challenge to cancer care systems around the world. Despite significant improvements in the organization of medical care of patients with cancer, numerous surveys of cancer populations demonstrate that significant proportions of patients fail to have their supportive care needs met. One possible solution is the introduction of a care coordinator role using oncology nursing to help ensure that patients' physical, psychological, and social support needs are addressed.

Coordination of palliative cancer care in the community: "unfinished business".

Goal: This study assessed the degree to which services in south-central Ontario, Canada, were coordinated to meet the supportive care needs of palliative cancer patients and their families.

Participants And Method: Programs within the region that were identified as providing supportive care to palliative cancer patients and their families were eligible to participate in the study. Program administrators participated in a semi-structured interview and direct-care providers completed a survey instrument.

Providing supportive care to cancer patients: a study on inter-organizational relationships.

Background: Supportive cancer care (SCC) has historically been provided by organizations that work independently and possess limited inter-organizational coordination. Despite the recognition that SCC services must be better coordinated, little research has been done to examine inter-organizational relationships that would enable this goal.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe relationships among programs that support those affected by cancer.

Towards improving the co-ordination of supportive cancer care services in the community.

In this paper an evaluation approach to assess the co-ordination of supportive community cancer care is presented. The aim of the study was to identify current gaps in co-ordination of services in a selected region in the province of Ontario, Canada, determine how consistent these gaps were across the province of Ontario, and develop service design considerations for improving the co-ordination of supportive cancer care services in the province of Ontario. The study addressed services required by two populations -clients who had been recently diagnosed and those in the palliative stages of cancer.