Abstract
A survivorship care plan refers to a written summary of the treatment received and recommendations regarding surveillance and management of late effects. To provide evaluation of a communication skills training (CST) intervention to enhance the transition of lymphoma survivors to cancer survivorship. Nineteen oncologists specializing in lymphoma treatment were recruited and completed a survivorship CST workshop, and two standardized patient assessments (SPAs), one pretraining and one posttraining. Significant improvements in SPA scores were observed in six of the seven SPA assessment categories: use of survivorship care plan, review of disease and treatment details, long-term effects, potential late effects, specific physician recommendations, and additional health maintenance recommendations. The intervention had significant effects on physicians’ uptake of new strategies and skills, as measured through pre- and posttraining SPAs, as well as on the physicians’ self-efficacy about having these conversations.
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Acknowledgments
The project described was supported by Award Number R01CA151899 from the National Cancer Institute. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health. The funders played no role in the design, conduct, or analysis of the study, nor in the interpretation and reporting of the study findings. The researchers were independent from the funders. All authors, external and internal, had full access to all of the data (including statistical reports and tables) in the study and can take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Adherence to ethical standards
All procedures, including the informed consent process, were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.
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Implications
Practice: Oncologists should create individualized survivorship care plans that include a written summary of the treatment received and recommendations regarding surveillance and management of late effects, and utilize them during consultations with cancer survivors and transitioning patients.
Policy: In order to implement American Society for Clinical Oncology’s recommendation for the use of survivorship care plans, training of oncologists in utilization of care plans should be mandated.
Research: Researchers should investigate oncologists’ use of survivorship care plans in consultations with cancer survivors in clinics and the effects on patient outcomes such as growth in knowledge about disease and treatment and adherence to physicians’ recommendations posttreatment.
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Banerjee, S.C., Matasar, M.J., Bylund, C.L. et al. Survivorship care planning after participation in communication skills training intervention for a consultation about lymphoma survivorship. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 5, 393–400 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0326-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-015-0326-z