Workforce characteristics and interventions associated with high-quality care and support to older people with cancer: a systematic review

Evaluating a nurse-led narrative interview intervention with cancer patients with a first diagnosis: A feasibility study

Narrative Medicine and Nursing are clinical-supporting intervention methodologies that aim to enhance professionals' communication skills and place patients at the heart of their therapeutic path. A narrative interview (NI) is a communication tool between practitioner and patient. The role of NI is debated extensively in the literature, but no studies focus on its use by nurses responsible for first-diagnosed cancer patients. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and utility of NI, carried out by Nurses, in managing people recently diagnosed with cancer. A pilot mixed-methods study with before-and-after-intervention evaluation, qualitative longitudinal data analysis, and concurrent data triangulation was conducted. The Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer assessed disease adaptation, while the Psychological Distress Inventory investigated psychological distress. The qualitative analysis of the narrative interviews assessed the usefulness of this intervention. 13 out of 14 eligible patients took voluntary part in the study. Of those, 9 (69 %) completed T1 and T2 questionnaires and NI. The following five themes emerged from thematic analysis: reaction to the disease, feelings related to the new condition of life, changes, importance of relationships and perception of care. Patients reported being highly stressed and recognized the importance of a supporting social network for better coping with the condition. The adoption of an NI approach at the time of cancer diagnosis is feasible. Due to the limited sample size, it is unclear if NI may positively impact psychological distress in this patient population. Further studies would benefit from the integration of an additional investigation tool aiming to clarify whether NI promotes disease awareness in cancer patients. Furthermore, the recruitment of a larger sample is equally recommended.

Geriatric Oncology as an Unmet Workforce Training Need in the United Kingdom-A Narrative Review by the British Oncology Network for Undergraduate Societies (BONUS) and the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) UK Country Group

Cancer is a disease associated with ageing. Managing cancer in older adults may prove challenging owing to pre-existing frailty, comorbidity, and wider holistic needs, as well as the unclear benefits and harms of standard treatment options. With the ongoing advances in oncology and the increasing complexity of treating older adults with cancer, the geriatric oncology field must be a priority for healthcare systems in education, research, and clinical practice. However, geriatric oncology is currently not formally taught in undergraduate education or postgraduate training programmes in the United Kingdom (UK). In this commentary, we outline the landscape of geriatric oncology undergraduate education and postgraduate training for UK doctors. We highlight current challenges and opportunities and provide practical recommendations for better preparing the medical workforce to meet the needs of the growing population of older adults with cancer. This includes key outcomes to be considered for inclusion within undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.

Surgical under-treatment of older adult patients with cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Older patients with cancer often have lower surgery rates and survival than younger patients, but this may reflect surgical contraindications of advanced disease, comorbidities, and frailty - and not necessarily under-treatment.

OBJECTIVES

This review aims to describe variations in surgery rates and observed or net survival among younger (<75) and older (≥75) patients with breast, lung and colorectal cancer, while taking account of pre-existing health factors, in order to understand how under-treatment is defined and estimated in the literature.

METHOD

MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and PubMed databases were searched for studies reporting surgery rates and observed or net survival among younger and older patients with breast, lung, and colorectal cancer. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale, and random effects meta-analyses were used to combine study results. The I-squared statistic and subgroup analyses were used to assess heterogeneity.

RESULTS

Thirty relatively high-quality studies of patients with breast (230,200; 71.9%), lung (77,573; 24.2%), and colorectal (12,407; 3.9%) cancers were identified. Compared to younger patients, older patients were less likely to receive surgical treatment for 1) breast cancer after adjusting for comorbidity, performance status (PS), functional status and patient choice, 2) lung cancer after accounting for stage, comorbidity, PS, and 3) colorectal cancer after adjusting for stage, comorbidity, and gender. The pooled unadjusted analyses showed lower surgery receipt in older patients with breast (odds ratio [OR] 0.31, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.13-0.78), lung (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.39-0.75), and colorectal (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.51-0.68) cancer. In separate analyses, older patients with breast, lung and colorectal cancer had lower observed and net survival, compared to younger patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Lower surgery rates in older patients may contribute to their poorer survival compared to younger patients. Future research quantifying under-treatment should include necessary clinical factors, patient choice, patient's quality of life and a statistically-robust approach, which will demonstrate how much of the survival deficit in older patients is due to their receiving lower surgery rates.

Service coverage and health workforce allocation strategies for geriatric and palliative care in low- and middle-income countries: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Advances in medical science coupled with increased people's income results an elevated average of life expectancy even in the resource poor countries. The growing number of aged population, however, has drawn little attention in health system discourse of low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Nevertheless, ensuring availability of appropriate service and properly trained and skilled health workforce is an absolute necessity for a functional geriatric and palliative healthcare. Given the lack of specialist geriatricians in LMICs contexts, there are other health workforce strategies that might be effective in building a proper health system response to this growing demand. Therefore, we aimed to identify and synthesize evidence on the existing health workforce-related strategies taken to provide geriatric and palliative care in LMICs.

METHODS

We will follow the recommendations provided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we will search the Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane database from January 2011 to December 2021 using a comprehensive search strategy. Two independent reviewers will screen the title and abstracts text using the specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. For the finally included articles, full manuscripts will be retrieved, and reviewers will appraise and extract data using standardized form independently. The third reviewer will resolve any disagreements appear in the process. The findings of the review be synthesized using the narrative synthesis approach to analyse descriptive quantitative and qualitative data. Furthermore, meta-analysis will be done provided that the data meet certain requirement as per Cochrane guideline. Rayyan software will be used to manage and synthesize data. Revman software will be used to do meta-analysis, if data support.

RESULTS

Findings of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

CONCLUSION

This systematic review will identify the existing effective strategies taken to provide geriatric and palliative care, in LMICs.

Contribution of community health care volunteers in facilitating mobilization for diabetes and hypertension screening among the general population residing in urban puducherry - An operational research study

Introduction

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have contributed to almost half of the global disease burden. Many countries have experimented with Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to provide necessary care for NCDs. We aimed at evaluating the contribution of CHVs in mobilizing adults for the Diabetes and Hypertension screening in a selected Primary Health Centre (PHC) of Puducherry, India.

Methodology

A community-based operational research study was conducted, where five volunteers from each of the 13 anganwadis functioning under the PHC were chosen as study participants. They were interviewed before enrolment for willingness. Four batches of sensitization and training sessions were conducted to provide the necessary training. CHVs were then given 3 months to mobilize the individuals for NCD screening. This model was evaluated using the Theoretical underpinning technique.

Results

Of the total 85 CHVs suggested, around 65 (76.5%) showed willingness for rendering services. Approximately 32 (49.2%) discontinued during the initial weeks of the intervention due to various reasons. The remaining CHVs could reach 363/1470 (24.7%), eligible individuals, among them, 303 (83.5) were convinced to visit the health centre for screening. From the total members who were screened, approximately 52 (17%) and 31 (10%) were diagnosed to have diabetes and hypertension respectively and were initiated on treatment as per national guidelines.

Conclusion

About half of the CHVs who volunteered, remained till the end and effectively contributed to a screening of NCDs. The involved volunteers aided in improvising the NCD coverage under the PHC.

Palliative care and quality of life in patients with cancer during the terminal phase. A family/patient perspective

OBJECTIVE

To explore the meaning of palliative care as perceived by the family caregiver and the patient with advanced cancer.

METHOD

Information was collected through in-depth interviews and field diaries to conduct this qualitative research study, with an interpretative phenomenological approach. We adopted Heidegger's perspective for the development of hermeneutic interpretation, and therefore followed the stages of intentionality, reduction, and constitution. We used Bardin's constructs of pre-analysis, coding, categorisation, and interpretation for the discourse analysis.

RESULTS

Seventeen patient-family caregiver dyads were considered. The perceptions of palliative nursing care focused on transpersonal relationships and the discourses referred to a lack of closeness between nursing staff and the patient. This was mainly expressed as a lack of emotional understanding and unmet needs. Themes were drawn from these findings based on developing a transpersonal relationship as a priority, including meeting needs and providing the empathic accompaniment that is fundamental for emotional well-being.

CONCLUSION

From the perspective of the dyads, palliative care covers intangible aspects of care. This requires nursing staff to work collaboratively with colleagues, with other health professionals and interprofessionally, including the institutions involved in care. Further work is required to implement these actions.