Cancer Survivorship Care Plan Project Discussion Paper
A survivorship care plan regards the cancer records and treatment history, including other follow-up tests and checks that a cancer patient may need in the future. In that light, the Cancer Survivorship Care Plans (SCPs) have been embraced by most healthcare providers and policymakers, including other parties that deal with cancer-related issues. That is because research shows the effectiveness of SCPs in improving the patient’s clinical care, satisfaction, and overall healthcare outcomes. By 2020, the United States recorded approximately 17 million cancer survivors making the SPCs development and implementation a crucial project to maintain and improve cancer survivors’ quality of life and self-efficacy (Pembroke et al., 2019). Also, Martinez-Arroyo et al. (2018) accentuate that despite such critical acknowledgment concerning SPCs’ effectiveness, most scholars still need to engage in further empirical research to identify the best evidence-based practices and other survivorship plans efficacy for different cancer survivors. Hence, my DNP project will focus on the following question; Does the provision of a post-treatment survivorship plan to planned radiation treatment cancer survivors more viable, especially in reducing anxiety levels and maintaining their daily life satisfaction? Cancer Survivorship Care Plan Project Discussion Paper
The key findings show that adult cancer survivors’ survivorship care plan was catered for at the treatment completion. Also, the findings indicated that those cancer survivors that utilized the SPC registered an improved quality of life, increased patient satisfaction, and reduced their anxiety levels compared to those that did not have an SCP (Pembroke et al., 2019; Aroyo et al., 2018). Therefore, with such research findings, SCPs prove to have had a health-related quality since such survivorship package projects an enhancement of the quality of life of the cancer survivors patient population (Martinez-Aroyo et al., 2018). As Joshi et al. (2021) accentuate, the randomized controlled study that initially evaluated cancer-related anxiety patient satisfaction levels proves that patients showed higher satisfaction levels while there was a reduction in cancer-related anxiety for the group with an SCP. The case differed from the cancer survivors group that did not possess an SCP (Joshi et al., 2021).
Another important finding regards the effectiveness of SCP in reducing cancer-related distress when comparing the SCP group with the no-SCP group. Such findings prove that survivorship package provision is essential to cancer patients in reducing distress and offering them peace of mind (Martinez-Aroyo et al., 2019). Overall, the SCPs prove their viability and effectiveness through the positive feelings on survivorship plans projected by most survivors. Hence, adopting the SCP model innovation will be crucial since it proves its efficacy in addressing the cancer survivors’ different characteristics and needs. Cancer Survivorship Care Plan Project Discussion Paper
References
Joshi, A., Larkins, S., Evans, R., Moodley, N., Brown, A., & Sabesan, S. (2021). Use and impact of breast cancer survivorship care plans: a systematic review. Breast Cancer, 28(6), 1292-1317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-021-01267-4
Martínez-Arroyo, O., Andreu Vaíllo, Y., Martínez López, P., & Galdón Garrido, M. J. (2019). Emotional distress and unmet supportive care needs in survivors of breast cancer beyond the end of primary treatment. Supportive Care in Cancer, 27(3), 1049-1057. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-018-4394-8
Pembroke, M., Nemeth, L. S., & Bradley, J. A. (2019). Radiation Therapy Survivorship: Healthcare providers’ perspectives on education and care. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 23(4). Doi: 10.1188/19.CJON.E66-E72 Cancer Survivorship Care Plan Project Discussion Paper