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What are the barriers of quality survivorship care for haematology cancer patients? Qualitative insights from cancer nurses

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Abstract

Purpose

Many haematological cancer survivors report long-term physiological and psychosocial effects beyond treatment completion. These survivors continue to experience impaired quality of life (QoL) as a result of their disease and aggressive treatment. As key members of the multidisciplinary team, the purpose of this study is to examine the insights of cancer nurses to inform future developments in survivorship care provision.

Methods

Open text qualitative responses from two prospective Australian cross-sectional surveys of nurses (n = 136) caring for patients with haematological cancer. Data were analysed thematically, using an inductive approach to identify themes.

Results

This study has identified a number of issues that nurses perceive as barriers to quality survivorship care provision. Two main themes were identified: the first relating to the challenges nurses face in providing care (‘care challenges’) and the second relating to the challenges of providing survivorship care within contemporary health care systems (‘system challenges’).

Conclusions

Cancer nurses perceive the nature of haematological cancer and its treatment and of the health care system itself, as barriers to the provision of quality survivorship care. Care challenges such as the lack of a standard treatment path and the relapsing or remitting nature of haematological cancers may be somewhat intractable, but system challenges relating to clearly defining and delineating professional responsibilities and exchanging information with other clinicians are not.

Implications for cancer survivors

Addressing the issues identified will facilitate cancer nurses’ provision of survivorship care and help address haematological survivors’ needs with regard to the physical and psychosocial consequences of their cancer and treatment.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Diamond Cancer Care Grant. Dr Raymond Chan is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Health Professional Research Fellowship (1070997), Dr Danette Langbecker by a NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship (1072061). The contents of the published material are solely the responsibility of the Administering Institution, a Participating Institution, or individual authors and do not reflect the views of the NHMRC. The authors would like to thank Cancer Nurses Society of Australia, Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand and all the nurses who participated in this study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia

    Danette Langbecker, Stuart Ekberg, Patsy Yates & Raymond Javan Chan

  2. Cancer Nursing Professorial Precinct, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Herston, Queensland, Australia

    Patsy Yates & Raymond Javan Chan

  3. Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Alexandre Chan

  4. Department of Pharmacy, National Cancer Centre, Singapore, Singapore

    Alexandre Chan

  5. Centre for Research and Innovation, West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, Level 8, Tower Block, Ipswich Hospital, Ipswich, QLD, 4305, Australia

    Raymond Javan Chan

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  1. Danette Langbecker
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Correspondence to Raymond Javan Chan.

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Langbecker, D., Ekberg, S., Yates, P. et al. What are the barriers of quality survivorship care for haematology cancer patients? Qualitative insights from cancer nurses. J Cancer Surviv 10, 122–130 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-015-0458-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-015-0458-7

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