School of Nursing & Midwifery Annual Report 2018

Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC

National Cancer Survivorship Needs Assessment: Research to Scope out and Map Cancer Survivorship Services in the Irish Context

The Team: Josephine Hegarty (PI), Ashling Murphy, Louise Mullen, Terry Hanan, Mairin O’ Mahony, Margaret Landers, Bridie McCarthy, Elaine Lehane, Brendan Noonan, Serena Fitzgerald, Mary Reidy, Mohamad M. Saab, Mark Corrigan

The Story: Survivorship rates for cancer have been steadily increasing with over 3.6% of the population having a previous or current diagnosis of cancer, which approximates 2.5 times the capacity of Croke Park; 60-70 individuals per General Practitioner (GP) and 4,000 individuals per oncologist. With cancer survivor numbers increasing, optimising individuals’ quality of life is a particular focus for the Irish health care system. The ECASP group in partnership with the National Cancer Control Programme conducted a National Cancer Survivorship Needs Assessment to ascertain the most suitable model of survivorship health care for use in Ireland. The research revealed the need for the current systems of care to change in order to respond to the numbers of increased cancer survivors. A survivorship pathway is needed which offers one-to- one sessions with health care professionals at key time-points, a comprehensive patient treatment summary and care plan on treatment completion, access to cancer specific follow up clinics and survivorship specific clinics, engagement with a survivorship programme, easy and rapid access to support and services for the management of symptoms and issue resolution. Health care professionals noted the need for a survivorship pathway underpinned by the key survivorship principles of Assess, Link in, Link out and onward, Inform, Empower, Support and Services abbreviated to the “ALLIES during cancer survivorship”.

Selected References:

Hegarty J, Murphy A, Mullen L, Hanan T, O’ Mahony M, Landers M, McCarthy B, Lehane E, Noonan B, Fitzgerald S, Reidy M, Saab MM, Corrigan M (2018) National Cancer Survivorship Needs Assessment: Research to Scope out and Map Cancer Survivorship Services in the Irish Context Report prepared for the National Cancer Control Programme.

Individuals have many and varied needs on the cancer survivorship journey.

HIGHLIGHTS

Need for a formalised cancer survivorship pathway.

PROJECT PARTNERS

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