title: A perioperative nurse liaison program: CNS interventions for cancer patients and their families.
abstract: Cancer surgery causes stress and anxiety for families and patients. Knowing that communication between family and health care professionals is traditionally fragmented during the perioperative period, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center developed a family-centered program to improve information exchange. This article describes the Perioperative Clinical Nurse Specialist program and the process by which ongoing communication of clinical information and psychosocial support for waiting relatives occurs. Good communication during the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative period is characteristic of quality care at a critical time. The subject program serves to bridge the gap in the continuum of perioperative care.
authors.affiliation: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Maureen F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hanson-Heath
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Agre
mesh_terms: D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D022143:Family Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D009519:New York City; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012944:Social Support