PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To explore patients' quality of life (QOL) as defined by RNs in adult and pediatric oncology settings and to examine, from the perspectives of clinical nurses, the knowledge that is needed to apply QOL research outcomes in clinical practice. DESIGN Qualitative research design using a focus group technique to explore the research questions. SETTING Three sites (i.e., a ped...

Providing concise, consistent, and individually relevant patient education is critical. At one institution, patients and families attended a chemotherapy education class consisting of an 11-minute DVD and an oncology nurse-facilitated group discussion. Postclass and eight-week follow-up surveys assessing understanding of treatment side effects, self-care management, and confidence in managing s...

Although the burden of a cancer diagnosis for patients is profound, healthcare systems often fail to address patients' and families' psychosocial, information, and care coordination needs. The authors of this article designed an oncology nurse navigator program to proactively address these care gaps and tested the program's effectiveness in providing high-quality cancer care through a randomize...

145 Coretta M. Jenerette, PhD, RN, AOCN®, is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mention of specific products and opinions related to those products do not indicate or imply endorsement by the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing or the Oncology Nursing Society. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1188/09.CJON.145-146 Effectiveness of th...

Venetia Wynter-Blyth has worked in oncology for 15 years. She spent 12 years as an upper gastrointestinal (GI) clinical nurse specialist before taking up her current post as Macmillan nurse consultant in upper GI cancers at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London. She was named RCN Nurse of the Year 2016 for creating PREPARE, a holistic 'prehabilitation' self-management programme for pe...

The following article is an interview with Patricia Davis, RN, BS, a technical information specialist at the National Cancer Institute. Davis graduated from Johns Hopkins Hospital as an RN in 1960. In the early 1960s, she worked at Alexandria Hospital in Virginia as a pediatric nurse and was in charge of the recovery room. Later in the 1960s, Davis was a stay-at-home mother and volunteered for ...

233 Lisa Hartkopf Smith, RN, MS, AOCN®, CNS, is an oncology clinical nurse specialist at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, OH. Mention of specific products and opinions related to those products do not indicate or imply endorsement by the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing or the Oncology Nursing Society. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1188/09.CJON.233-234 National Patient Safety Goal ...

The elderly oncology patient has unique needs that require consideration in all aspects of care, from drug administration to nursing management. Aging is a highly individualized process and may present as a variety of clinical manifestations. As these age-related changes occur the oncology nurse must be prepared to recognize their potential impact on cancer treatment for each individual patient...

BACKGROUND Nurse practitioners should become more active in patient navigation and its subcomponent, care coordination, because research has shown that these roles are influential in improving patient care at all levels of an organization. Well-defined process and outcome measures, as well as educational initiatives, are critical to these programs because they serve as the structure for program...