Articles & White Papers

Cancer Survivorship Programs—How Are They Measuring Up? Part II

In the second installment of her series, AONN+ Program Director Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, talks about transforming patients' survivorship plans from unused medical documents into life plans that they will actively use to refer to for setting behavioral and lifestyle goals.

Cancer Survivorship Programs—How Are They Measuring Up?

In the first of a 2-part series, AONN+ Program Director Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, addresses the importance of analyzing survivorship programs and some of the inherent challenges to do so, including a lack of clinical research and data implementation.

Responding to Patient Questions About Survival Statistics

This happens nearly every day, doesn’t it? A newly diagnosed patient with cancer wants to know the odds of living through and beyond his or her cancer treatment. It doesn’t matter if we tell patients that we hope they live a long time and not to focus on stats; they focus on them anyway. But when it comes to statistics, there are some important facts for nurse navigators to consider.

Turn a Survivorship Care Plan into a Survivorship LIFE Plan

Although the requirements to provide a cancer survivor a treatment summary and survivorship care plan have been in place for several years, with 2015 being the required timeframe for officially demonstrating that these medical records are being provided, most institutions are still not ready.

What are the Elements That Make up a “Good Death” Experience for a Cancer Patient?

We never want to think about the reality that our patients dealing with advanced cancers are going to eventually die of their disease or from the toxicities of its treatment. But they will. Commonly today there is avoidance on the part of treating physicians, generally medical oncologists, to embark on a discussion about end of life planning.

Cancer Survivorship Training, Inc.

With the expanding role of navigation across the cancer control continuum, standardization of education and a certificate of competency are essential. The current landscape includes high-quality education through in-person didactic and online learning that may provide the navigator with increased competency, continuing education units (CEUs), access to consensus-recommended best practices, and limited evidence-based guidelines.

Patient Navigation Becomes New Standard for Cancer Program Accreditation

Patient navigation and care coordination have been a focus in healthcare for several years because of the fragmentation that commonly occurs among access, diagnosis, and treatment. This strong national movement has evidence-based research to support the need, which has led cancer program-accrediting bodies to add patient navigation as a required standard.