Survivorship

The need for research regarding long term cancer survivorship: For decades pediatric oncology professionals have followed their patients long term.

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.

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.

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.

The need to train PCPs, gynecologists, primary care NPs, internal medicine providers and others who are in the community setting and caring for patients for their chronic illnesses or to promote wellness is paramount to a cancer survivorship program functioning well.

As we continue to see more cancer patients diagnosed, treated and thankfully surviving their cancers, we also are experiencing a decrease in the number of individuals choosing oncology as their medical specialty.

From the moment a patient learns she has cancer through the decision-making process to determine the definitive treatment and execution of that acute treatment plan, the nurse navigator has been at this patient’s side. But what happens during surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates overall costs for cancer in 2010 at $263.8 billion: $102.8 billion for direct medical costs (total of all healthcare expenditures), $20.9 billion for indirect morbidity costs (cost of loss of productivity due to illness), and $140.1 billion for indirect mortality costs (cost of lost productivity due to premature death).