Call for action: caring for the United States' aging cancer survivors.
The United States is undergoing significant societal shifts that will have profound implications for the professional practice of oncology nurses, including the aging of the nation's baby boomers and an anticipated increase in cancer survivors. Understanding of the confluence of those factors and their impact on survivors' physical and psychological outcomes remains limited. Nurses may be aware of advances in general survivorship care but may not have the specific knowledge and skills to meet the distinctive needs of older adult cancer survivors. The authors call for a paradigm change in nursing practice, which will increase awareness across professional specialties that survivorship care for older adults is a professional obligation of all nurses.
Office of Cancer Survivorship in the Division of Vice-President for Medical Affairs, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, USA. gpalos@mdanderson.org
Guadalupe R
GR
Palos
Fran
F
Zandstra
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D017741:Survivors; D014481:United States