The work left undone. Understanding the challenge of providing holistic lung cancer nursing care in the UK.
In England best practice guidance in cancer recommends that all patients have access to a specialist nurse such as the tumour specific clinical nurse specialist. The role has become pivotal providing aspects of care e.g. meeting information needs, holistic nurse led follow up including symptom control, managing care and providing psychological and social interventions including referral to others in the role of keyworker. There are approximately 295 lung cancer nurse specialists in England and recent study to model optimum caseload used an on line survey to look at workload of lung cancer specialist nurses. A survey of 100 lung cancer nurses from across the UK (RR78%) examined the perception of the work left undone against best practice guidance, caseload size, workload and other factors. 67 of 78 respondents perceived they left work such as proactive management (52) undertaking holistic needs assessments (46) providing appropriate psychological care (26) and meeting information needs (16). The majority (70) worked unpaid overtime (mean 3.8 h range 1-10 h) per week. Although proactive management is thought to result in better outcomes for lung cancer patients in terms of survival, quality of life and decisions of end of life a substantial number of the specialist nurses felt that factors such as caseload and organisational factors inhibited this.
London Southbank University, Faculty of Health & Social Care, LSBU, 103 Borough Rd, London SE1 0AA, United Kingdom. Electronic address: alisonleary@yahoo.com.
Alison
A
Leary
National Lung Cancer Forum for Nurses, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Leeds General Infirmary, Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3EX, United Kingdom.
John
J
White
National Cancer Action Team, United Kingdom.
Laura
L
Yarnell
D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006694:Holistic Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing*; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011361:Professional Competence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D016526:Workload
Caseload; Clinical nurse specialist; Lung cancer; Specialist nurse; Workload