Project overview
Background
The number of patients living with and beyond cancer is projected to rise to over 3 million by 2030. Traditional models of cancer care where people are managed and followed up by secondary care may no longer be sustainable. It is widely accepted that collaborative working between primary and secondary care is an essential ingredient for effective survivorship care for people with cancer. However, evidence is lacking about the features of an effective integrated cancer care model.
Cancer Nursing Across Boundaries intervention design and evaluation
Cancer Nursing Across Boundaries (CNAB) developed and introduced ‘boundary spanning’ nursing roles across primary and secondary care. The service improvement’s primary aim was to improve the provision of effective integrated personalised care for patients living with and beyond cancer.
The primary aim of the service evaluation, conducted alongside the service improvement, was to identify and characterise barriers and facilitators to effective integrated care for patients living with and beyond cancer.
Findings
The evaluation identified the following factors than affected the delivery of integrated care:
• Relational factors (e.g. communication between individual primary and secondary care professionals)
• Cultural factors (e.g. Secondary healthcare professionals understanding the information primary healthcare professionals need to inform the care of people living with and beyond cancer)
• Technical factors (e.g. a lack of cancer-specific training for primary healthcare professionals)
• Structural factors (e.g. access to electronic systems across primary and secondary care)
The service model resulted in:
• increased primary care knowledge, skills and confidence to manage cancer
• increased secondary care knowledge, skills and confidence to manage long-term conditions alongside cancer.
• practice nurses feeling better supported by secondary care in relation to cancer patients
The model revealed that practice nurses were in a good position to support patients with cancer and long term conditions because of the relational continuity they had built up with patients.
The number of patients living with and beyond cancer is projected to rise to over 3 million by 2030. Traditional models of cancer care where people are managed and followed up by secondary care may no longer be sustainable. It is widely accepted that collaborative working between primary and secondary care is an essential ingredient for effective survivorship care for people with cancer. However, evidence is lacking about the features of an effective integrated cancer care model.
Cancer Nursing Across Boundaries intervention design and evaluation
Cancer Nursing Across Boundaries (CNAB) developed and introduced ‘boundary spanning’ nursing roles across primary and secondary care. The service improvement’s primary aim was to improve the provision of effective integrated personalised care for patients living with and beyond cancer.
The primary aim of the service evaluation, conducted alongside the service improvement, was to identify and characterise barriers and facilitators to effective integrated care for patients living with and beyond cancer.
Findings
The evaluation identified the following factors than affected the delivery of integrated care:
• Relational factors (e.g. communication between individual primary and secondary care professionals)
• Cultural factors (e.g. Secondary healthcare professionals understanding the information primary healthcare professionals need to inform the care of people living with and beyond cancer)
• Technical factors (e.g. a lack of cancer-specific training for primary healthcare professionals)
• Structural factors (e.g. access to electronic systems across primary and secondary care)
The service model resulted in:
• increased primary care knowledge, skills and confidence to manage cancer
• increased secondary care knowledge, skills and confidence to manage long-term conditions alongside cancer.
• practice nurses feeling better supported by secondary care in relation to cancer patients
The model revealed that practice nurses were in a good position to support patients with cancer and long term conditions because of the relational continuity they had built up with patients.
Staff
Lead researchers
Other researchers
Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups
Research outputs
Nicole Collaço, Kate A. Lippiett, David Wright, Hazel Brodie, Jane Winter, Alison Richardson & Claire Foster,
2024, Supportive Care in Cancer, 32(2)
Type: article