Pairing automated exercise coaching with patient-reported symptom monitoring: A way to nudge exercise uptake during cancer treatment?

INTRODUCTION: Symptoms during cancer treatment cause burden, diminished physical functioning, and poor quality of life. Exercise is recommended during treatment to mitigate symptoms; however, interventions are difficult to translate into clinical care due to the lack of patient uptake and clinical implementation barriers. We evaluated the uptake, acceptability, and impact of an automated ePRO exercise module triggered by three patient-reported symptoms: nausea/vomiting, fatigue, and anxiety, during chemotherapy. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of an exercise module intervention imbedded in the cancer symptom monitoring and management platform, Symptom Care at Home (SCH). Utilizing behavioral economics principles, the exercise module was triggered when any of the three symptoms were reported. Once triggered, participants were coached on exercise benefits for symptom reduction and then offered the opportunity to set weekly exercise goals plus tracking of the goal outcomes and receive further encouragement. We examined uptake, exercise goal setting and attainment, and symptom impact. RESULTS: Of 180 SCH participants receiving the SCH intervention, 170 (94.4%) triggered the exercise module and 102 of the 170 (60%) accepted the module, setting goals on average for 6.3 weeks. Of 102 participants, 82 (80.4%) achieved one or more exercise goals, exercising on average 79.8 min/week. Participants who achieved a higher proportion of goals had statistically significant lower overall symptom severity and lower severity of the triggered symptom. CONCLUSION: An automated mHealth exercise coaching intervention, aimed to nudge those receiving chemotherapy to initiate an exercise routine had significant uptake, is acceptable and may reduce symptom severity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01973946.

Feasibility and Usability of EnergyPoints: A Mobile Health App to Guide Acupressure Use for Cancer Symptom Management.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the feasibility and usability of EnergyPoints™, an innovative mobile health app that teaches and guides people with cancer to implement daily acupressure to self-manage their fatigue and sleep disturbances. METHODS AND INTERVENTION: The study used an integrated agile, human-centered approach. Adults (age 18 years and over) with cancer experiencing at least moderate fatigue, and living in the Greater New York City community, were recruited from social media, patient advocacy groups, and referrals. Twenty participants (in 3 sprints of 3, 5, and 12) were video-recorded thinking aloud while using the app for the first time. They then used the app at home to self-administer acupressure (twice daily for 1 week) while continuously wearing a fitness tracker. Each participant completed an exit interview and modified Computer System Usability Questionnaire post-participation. RESULTS: Participants were ages 40 to 76 years and 65% female; 65% were non-Hispanic white. Mean pass rates per ritual exceeded 80%. Users completed (totally or partially) greater than 90% of stimulating acupressure and 70% of relaxing acupressure rituals. Sprint 3 SPs totally completed at least 1 ritual 87% of the time. The majority agreed or strongly agreed the app was easy to use (90%), easy to learn (85%), easy to understand (75%), and effective in helping perform self-acupressure (85%). In an analysis of ease of completing 5 key tasks, all successfully completed the tasks; 3 users required some assistance. Of 654 usability statements, those coded as personal experience/context (197), content related to acupressure learning (105), and content related to the onboarding/profile (71) were most frequent. The design team integrated recommendations into the app before the next sprint. CONCLUSIONS: Findings supported feasibility and usability, as well as acceptability, and led to significant alterations and improvements. EnergyPoints™ offers an opportunity to mainstream acupressure and help cancer survivors self-manage their symptoms.

An Audio-Recorded Hypnosis Intervention for Chronic Pain Management in Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.

This pilot study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a 4-week hypnosis audio-recording intervention in cancer survivors with chronic pain. Forty participants were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 21) or wait-list (n = 19) conditions. Pain intensity ratings were lower at Week 4 for both groups. The effect size for pain reduction in the treatment group was d = 0.25 from baseline to 4 weeks, and the interaction effect (Time x Group) was F = .024; η2p = .001. The small interaction effect may be due to the availability of only one recording and large variability in dose. Qualitative data indicated that the intervention's benefits included participation in self-care, improved relaxation, and an opportunity to focus on oneself in a positive way. Further efficacy testing of an audio-recording intervention in a fully powered clinical trial is warranted.

Online social support for cancer caregivers: alignment between requests and offers on CaringBridge.

OBJECTIVES: Exploring CaringBridge, we describe types of social support caregivers requested, types of social support offered, and the alignment between the two. RESEARCH APPROACH: A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive approach. SAMPLE: Twenty public CaringBridge sites. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH: The Social Support Behavior Code system was adapted and applied to cancer-caregiver journal entries (n = 389) and guestbook posts (n = 2,466) to identify types of support (emotional, esteem, informational, network, tangible, and no support requested/offered). Matches between requests and offers were examined. FINDINGS: Cancer caregivers requested different types of support from their guests, most commonly emotional support. However, in most posts, caregivers did not request any support (n = 238, 61.18%). Guests offered all support types, but predominately offered emotional support (n = 2,353, 95%). When support was requested, 66.67% of requests received a matched offer within 24 hours. INTERPRETATION: Social media platforms may provide all types of support to caregivers.

Cross-Cultural Translation of the nChinese Version of Pain Care Quality Surveys (C-PainCQ).

Health disparities in pain care continue to exist among non-English-speaking Chinese-Americans. The Pain Care Quality?© (PainCQ) surveys, a valid instrument measuring the quality of pain care from the patient's perspective, is available only in English currently. This study generated a Chinese version of the PainCQ (C-PainCQ) following a cross-cultural translation approach to address health equity in pain care. A multicultural, bilingual expert team produced a good quality, prefinal version of C-PainCQ. Chinese-speaking patients (n = 55) evaluated conceptual and content equivalence while bilingual participants (n = 13) reviewed semantic equivalence of C-PainCQ items. Feedback from participants, including adding a new item related to education on medication compliance, was used to revise the tool. This C-PainCQ is ready for future research to examine the reliability and construct validity with a large sample of Chinese-speaking patients.

Design and Evaluation of the Electronic Patient-Generated Index.

BACKGROUND: The patient-generated index (PGI) is an individualized measure of health-related quality of life. Previous work testing the PGI in the oncology setting identified threats to content validity due to navigational and computational completion errors using the paper format. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this pilot study was to refine and evaluate the usability and acceptability of an electronic PGI (ePGI) prototype in the outpatient radiation oncology setting. METHODS: This pilot study used adaptive agile web design, cognitive interview, and survey methods. RESULTS: Three iterations of testing and refining the ePGI were required. Fifteen patients completed the refined ePGI using touch screen tablets with little or no coaching required. Nearly all participants rated the ePGI as "easy" or "very" easy to use, understand, and navigate. Up to one half stated they did not share this type of information with their clinician but felt the information on the ePGI would be useful to discuss when making decisions about their care. Eight clinicians participated, all of whom felt the ePGI was a useful tool to initiate dialogue about quality of life issues, reveal infrequent or unusual effects of treatment, and assist with symptom management. DISCUSSION: The pilot study indicates the ePGI may be useful for use at the point of care. Larger studies are needed to explore the influence it may have in decision-making and restructuring patient/provider communication.

Trajectories of Depressed Mood and Anxiety During Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Women are at risk of mood disturbance during treatment for breast cancer. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to identify classes of women experiencing similar trajectories of depressed mood and anxiety while receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer and to determine associated antecedents and outcomes. The specific aims were to (1) determine the distinct trajectory classes associated with severity of depressed mood and anxiety reported by women undergoing cycles 2 and 3 of chemotherapy for breast cancer, (2) determine if class membership is associated with various antecedent variables, and (3) determine if class membership is associated with days of missed work and hours spent lying down. METHODS: In a secondary analysis, classes were identified using Latent Growth Mixture Modeling. Antecedents and outcomes related to class membership were explored. RESULTS: Participants (n = 166; mean age, 53 [SD, 10.8] years) were mostly white (91.46%); half had early-stage disease. Two trajectories of depressed mood and anxiety were identified. Receipt of doxorubicin was associated with the higher severity class for depressed mood (P < .01) and anxiety (P = .04). No college education (P = .03) or spending more hours lying down (P = .03) was associated with the higher severity class for anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Distinct trajectories of mood disturbance are distinguished by baseline severity. Further study is needed to determine if biologic or genomic factors are associated with class membership. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Identification of women at risk of mood disturbance may allow clinicians to intensify symptom management. Mood disturbance early in the treatment trajectory warrants management to improve outcomes.

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire for Nurses.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (EBPQ-English) has been used in various populations. However, it has not been validated in the Chinese nursing population. This study aimed to translate EBPQ-English into Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties. METHODS: The Brislin translation procedure was used to maintain the conceptual equivalence. The validity and reliability of EBPQ-Chinese were investigated using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's α with 810 nurses from nine tertiary hospitals in Southern China. RESULTS: Principle axis factoring and oblimin rotation yielded three factors with 22 items, including Knowledge and Skills (k = 14; α = 0.94), Attitudes (k = 3; α = 0.83), and Practice (k = 5; α = 0.86), which explained 57.03% of the total variance. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence supports the validity and reliability of a three-factor 22-item EBPQ-Chinese.

Bundling Interventions to Enhance Pain Care Quality (BITE Pain) in Medical Surgical Patients.

Background: Inadequate pain management and undertreatment remain a serious clinical issue among hospitalized adults, contributing to chronic pain syndromes and opioid dependency. Implementation of individual pain care interventions has been insufficient to improve pain care quality. The purpose of this interprofessional, patient-centered project was to implement a 6-component bundle of evidence-based pain management strategies to improve patients' perception of pain care quality and 24-hour pain experience outcomes. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used to test the effect of a bundled pain management intervention on 3 medical surgical units. Baseline outcomes using the Pain Care Quality-Interdisciplinary (PainCQ-I©) and Pain Care Quality-Nursing (PainCQ-N©) surveys were measured monthly for 4 months preintervention and 30 months postintervention. Results: A convenience sample of 846 patients was analyzed. The effect of the intervention on pain outcomes could not be tested because unit-based adherence did not meet the goal of 80%. A subsample of 70.2% (594/846) of participants was sufficient to complete a 3-group analysis of preintervention and postintervention participants with confirmed intervention adherence. Participants in the postintervention group who received all 6 components (n=65) had significantly higher odds of higher PainCQ© scores than those in the preintervention group (n=141) (PainCQ-I©: odds ratio [OR] 2.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.54-4.42; PainCQ-N©: OR 3.82, 95% CI 2.06-7.09) or those in the postintervention group receiving ≤5 components (n=388) (PainCQ-I©: OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.57-4.03; PainCQ-N©: OR 3.84, 95% CI 2.17-6.80). Conclusion: Medical surgical patients participating in this study who received the bundled 6-component intervention reported significantly higher levels of perceived pain care quality, suggesting that a bundled approach may be more beneficial than unstandardized strategies.

Dissemination and Implementation of Patient-centered Indicators of Pain Care Quality and Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Previous approaches to measuring and improving nursing-sensitive, patient-centered metrics of pain quality and outcomes in hospitalized patients have been limited. METHODS: In this translational research study, we disseminated and implemented pain quality indicators in 1611 medical and/or surgical, step-down, rehabilitation, critical access, and obstetrical (postpartum) units from 326 US hospitals participating in the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators. Eligible patients were English-speaking adults in pain. Trained nurses collected patients' perceptions via structured interview including 9 pain quality indicators, demographic, and clinical variables; these patient experience data were merged with unit and hospital level data. Analyses included geographic mapping; summary statistics and 3-level mixed effects modeling. RESULTS: Hospitals in 45 states and District of Columbia participated. Of 22,293 screened patients, 15,012 were eligible; 82% verbally consented and participated. Pain prevalence was 72%. Participants were 59.4% female; ages ranged from 19 to 90+ (median: 59 y); 27.3% were nonwhite and 6.5% were Hispanic. Pain intensity on average over the past 24 hours was 6.03 (SD=2.45) on a 0-10 scale. 28.5% of patients were in severe pain frequently or constantly. Race (nonwhite), younger age, being female and nonsurgical were associated (P<0.001) with greater pain. Care quality indicators ranking lowest related to discussion of analgesic side effects and use of nonpharmacologic approaches. CONCLUSIONS: Unrelieved pain remains a high-volume problem. Individual factors and unit type were significantly associated with pain outcomes. Hospitals can employ these quality indicators to direct continuous quality improvement targeting pain care quality.

Symptom Trajectories Are Associated With Co-occurring Symptoms During Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer.

CONTEXT: Symptoms are reported to co-occur during treatment for breast cancer. We previously identified three patterns of fatigue and two patterns of disturbed sleep, depressed mood, and anxiety in women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer using a Latent Growth Mixture Model. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore whether membership in symptom classes of fatigue, disturbed sleep, depressed mood, and anxiety is associated with other symptoms at moderate-to-severe levels. METHODS: Using data from three longitudinal studies, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and Jonckheere-Terpstra tests for trend were used to distinguish between classes of women on co-occurring symptoms. Summative scores were calculated, including the number of days subjects reported moderate-to-severe levels (4 or higher on a 0-10 scale) of seven symptoms during two cycles of chemotherapy and compared to class membership. RESULTS: Participants (n = 166) in the higher fatigue severity class reported more days with moderate-to-severe disturbed sleep, depressed mood, anxiety, nausea, and trouble thinking. Women in the higher severity disturbed sleep class reported more days with moderate-to-severe fatigue, depressed mood, anxiety, and trouble thinking. Women in the higher depressed mood severity class reported more days with moderate-to-severe fatigue, disturbed sleep, anxiety, and nausea. Women in the higher anxiety severity class reported more days with moderate-to-severe fatigue, disturbed sleep, and depressed mood. CONCLUSION: Moderate-to-severe symptoms co-occur during cancer treatment for breast cancer. The dynamic process of multiple symptoms may be altered by future identification of a shared etiology.

Symptom Care at Home: A Comprehensive and Pragmatic PRO System Approach to Improve Cancer Symptom Care.

INTRODUCTION: There is growing recognition that systematically obtaining the patient's perspective on their health experience, using patient-reported outcomes (PRO), can be used to improve patient care in real time. Few PRO systems are designed to monitor and provide symptom management support between visits. Patients are instructed to contact providers between visits with their concerns, but they rarely do, leaving patients to cope with symptoms alone at home. We developed and tested an automated system, Symptom Care at Home (SCH), to address this gap in tracking and responding to PRO data in-between clinic visits. The purpose of this paper is to describe SCH as an example of a comprehensive PRO system that addresses unmet need for symptom support outside the clinic. METHODS FOR PRO SCORE INTERPRETATION: SCH uses pragmatic, single-item measures for assessing symptoms, which are commonly used and readily interpretable for both patients and providers. We established alerting values for PRO symptom data, which was particularly important for conserving oncology providers' time in responding to daily PRO data. METHODS FOR DEVELOPING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTING ON PRO RESULTS: The SCH system provides automated, just-in-time self-management coaching tailored to the specific symptom pattern and severity levels reported in the daily call. In addition, the SCH system includes a provider decision support system for follow-up symptom assessment and intervention strategies. DISCUSSION: SCH provides PRO monitoring, tailored automated self-management coaching, and alerts the oncology team of poorly controlled symptoms with a provider dashboard that includes evidence-based decision support for follow-up to improve individual patients' symptom care. We particularly emphasize our process for PRO selection, rationale for determining alerting thresholds, and the design of the provider dashboard and decision support. Currently, we are in the process of updating the SCH system, developing both web-based and app versions in addition to interactive voice response phone access and integrating the SCH system in the electronic health record.

Context Matters for Nurses Leading Pain Improvement in U.S. Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Pain continues to be a problem in hospitalized patients. Contextual factors contribute to the success of pain quality improvement efforts. AIMS: This paper describes nurse team leaders' perceptions of organizational context and factors perceived to help and hinder the process of leading a unit-based improvement effort focused on pain. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive design. SETTING: Interviews took place over the telephone. PARTICIPANTS: Nurses from 106 hospitals across the United States. METHODS: Investigators interviewed 125 nurses leading a unit-based pain quality improvement project in partnership with the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators. Lewin's Field Theory guided a thematic analysis. RESULTS: Key contextual factors related to the amount of change in the health care environment and characteristics of the organization and providers. Helping forces included characteristics of nurses, teamwork, a culture of quality, opportunities for learning, pain management resources, and accountability for pain management. Hindering forces included: barriers to involvement, attitudes and relationships, lack of knowledge, and types of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Overcoming the pervasive barriers of constant change and lack of staff involvement while also capitalizing on the culture of quality and characteristics of the health care team may further enhance and sustain improvement efforts related to pain management of hospitalized patients. New models for influencing quality improvement could be strengthened with involving frontline staff in both planning and implementation of improvement efforts. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Because of the diverse responses, it is recommended that each unit conduct a force-field analysis to guide successful implementation of improvement efforts.

Chemotherapy-related neuropathic symptom management: a randomized trial of an automated symptom-monitoring system paired with nurse practitioner follow-up.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new care model to reduce chemotherapy-induced neuropathic symptoms. Neuropathic symptom usual care was prospectively compared to an automated symptom-monitoring and coaching system, SymptomCare@Home (SCH), which included nurse practitioner follow-up triggered by moderate to severe symptoms. METHODS: Patients beginning chemotherapy were randomized to usual care (UC) or to the SCH intervention. This sub-analysis included only taxane/platin therapies. Participants called the automated telephone symptom-monitoring system daily to report numbness and tingling. The monitoring system recorded patient-reported neuropathic symptom severity, distress, and activity interference on a 0-10 scale. UC participants were instructed to call their oncologist for symptom management. SCH participants with symptom severity of ≥ 4 received automated self-care strategies, and a nurse practitioner (NP) provided guideline-based care. RESULTS: There were 252 participants, 78.6% of which were female. Mean age was 55.1 years. Mean follow-up was 90.2 ± 39.9 days (81.1 ± 40.3 calls). SCH participants had fewer days of moderate (1.8 ± 4.0 vs. 8.6 ± 17.3, p < 0.001) and severe chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy symptoms (0.3 ± 1.0 vs. 1.1 ± 5.2, p = 0.006). SCH participants had fewer days with moderate and severe symptom-related distress (1.4 ± 3.7 vs. 6.9 ± 15.0, p < 0.001; 0.2 ± 0.9 vs. 1.5 ± 6.1, p = 0.001) and trended towards less activity interference (3.3 ± 1.9 vs. 3.8 ± 2.1, p = 0.08). Other neuropathic symptoms were addressed in 5.8-15.4% of SCH follow-up calls. CONCLUSIONS: The SCH system effectively identified neuropathic symptoms and their severity and, paired with NP follow-up, reduced symptom prevalence, severity, and distress compared to usual care.

Me & My Wishes: Lessons Learned From Prototyping Resident Centered Videos About Care Preferences.

Me & My Wishes are facilitated, resident-centered video-recorded conversations to communicate current and end-of-life care preferences. We describe the video production process of two prototypes in the long-term care (LTC) setting and discuss lessons learned around developing this type of intervention. Partnering with an LTC community allowed us to create videos on-site, document staff time, handle any barriers with video production, and evaluate the process. In this article, we will describe the process of two residents creating Me & My Wishes videos. Both residents responded positively to viewing their edited video (about 20 min), saying the videos would be "good for family or staff to hear feelings about preferences." Staff members also responded positively to the videos. We discuss two key issues to consider: the possibility that resident preferences may change and the resources to produce and view videos.

A Community-Based Approach to Assessing the Physical, Emotional, and Health Status of Hispanic Breast Cancer Survivors.

INTRODUCTION: Latina breast cancer survivors in the United States face disproportionate risk for poorer quality of life and physical health, as well as greater emotional distress. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to describe the physical, emotional, and general health status of 135 Latina breast cancer survivors served by a community-based program. RESULTS: Of the 135 surveys sent, 48 survivors responded. Of those who responded, time since diagnosis ranged from 0 to 24 years ( M = 4.37; SD = 5.54); and 45.9% of the women rated physical health as poor or fair. Fatigue prevalence was high, with 60.5% reporting fatigue as moderate or severe. Nearly 80% reported having pain (score >0); 38.3% reported pain was moderate or severe. The women reported mild levels of anxiety and depression but high levels of stress ( M = 4.14; SD = 3.02). CONCLUSIONS: Latina breast cancer survivors could benefit from interventions focused on commonly shared problems while tailoring specific interventions for subsets with more severe symptoms.

Distinct Trajectories of Fatigue and Sleep Disturbance in Women Receiving Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To examine self-reported severity of fatigue and disturbed sleep experienced daily by women with breast cancer during multiple cycles of chemotherapy, exploring potential classes of women experiencing similar symptom trajectories.
. DESIGN: In a secondary analysis, classes of women experiencing similar patterns of fatigue and disturbed sleep were identified.
. SETTING: Oncology clinics in the United States.
. SAMPLE: 166 women with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. 
. METHODS: Severity scores were self-reported daily using an automated system. Classes of fatigue and disturbed sleep severity were identified using latent growth mixture modeling.
. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Fatigue, disturbed sleep, age, stage of disease, education, employment, marital status, chemotherapy regimen, hours lying down, and missed work.
. FINDINGS: Three fatigue classes were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of symptom trajectories for fatigue and disturbed sleep were distinguished by baseline symptom severity.
. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Identification of women at risk for fatigue and disturbed sleep may allow clinicians to intensify symptom management.

Magmatic evolution of a Cordilleran flare-up and its role in the creation of silicic crust.

The role of magmatic processes as a significant mechanism for the generation of voluminous silicic crust and the development of Cordilleran plateaus remains a lingering question in part because of the inherent difficulty in quantifying plutonic volumes. Despite this difficulty, a growing body of independently measured plutonic-to-volcanic ratios suggests the volume of plutonic material in the crust related to Cordilleran magmatic systems is much larger than is previously expected. To better examine the role of crustal magmatic processes and its relationship to erupted material in Cordilleran systems, we present a continuous high-resolution crustal seismic velocity model for an ~800 km section of the active South American Cordillera (Puna Plateau). Although the plutonic-to-volcanic ratios we estimate vary along the length of the Puna Plateau, all ratios are larger than those previously reported (~30:1 compared to 5:1) implying that a significant volume of intermediate to silicic plutonic material is generated in the crust of the central South American Cordillera. Furthermore, as Cordilleran-type margins have been common since the onset of modern plate tectonics, our findings suggest that similar processes may have played a significant role in generating and/or modifying large volumes of continental crust, as observed in the continents today.

SymptomCare@Home: Developing an Integrated Symptom Monitoring and Management System for Outpatients Receiving Chemotherapy.

SymptomCare@Home, an integrated symptom monitoring and management system, was designed as part of randomized clinical trials to help patients with cancer who receive chemotherapy in ambulatory clinics and often experience significant symptoms at home. An iterative design process was informed by chronic disease management theory and features of assessment and clinical decision support systems used in other diseases. Key stakeholders participated in the design process: nurse scientists, clinical experts, bioinformatics experts, and computer programmers. Especially important was input from end users, patients, and nurse practitioners participating in a series of studies testing the system. The system includes both a patient and clinician interface and fully integrates two electronic subsystems: a telephone computer-linked interactive voice response system and a Web-based Decision Support-Symptom Management System. Key features include (1) daily symptom monitoring, (2) self-management coaching, (3) alerting, and (4) nurse practitioner follow-up. The nurse practitioner is distinctively positioned to provide assessment, education, support, and pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions to intensify management of poorly controlled symptoms at home. SymptomCare@Home is a model for providing telehealth. The system facilitates using evidence-based guidelines as part of a comprehensive symptom management approach. The design process and system features can be applied to other diseases and conditions.

Recommendations to Support Nurses and Improve the Delivery of Oncology and Palliative Care in India.

CONTEXT: Nurses in India often practice in resource-constrained settings and care for cancer patients with high symptom burden yet receive little oncology or palliative care training. AIM: The aim of this study is to explore challenges encountered by nurses in India and offer recommendations to improve the delivery of oncology and palliative care. METHODS: Qualitative ethnography. SETTING: The study was conducted at a government cancer hospital in urban South India. SAMPLE: Thirty-seven oncology/palliative care nurses and 22 others (physicians, social workers, pharmacists, patients/family members) who interact closely with nurses were included in the study. DATA COLLECTION: Data were collected over 9 months (September 2011- June 2012). Key data sources included over 400 hours of participant observation and 54 audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. ANALYSIS: Systematic qualitative analysis of field notes and interview transcripts identified key themes and patterns. RESULTS: Key concerns of nurses included safety related to chemotherapy administration, workload and clerical responsibilities, patients who died on the wards, monitoring family attendants, and lack of supplies. Many participants verbalized distress that they received no formal oncology training. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations to support nurses in India include: prioritize safety, optimize role of the nurse and explore innovative models of care delivery, empower staff nurses, strengthen nurse leadership, offer relevant educational programs, enhance teamwork, improve cancer pain management, and engage in research and quality improvement projects. Strong institutional commitment and leadership are required to implement interventions to support nurses. Successful interventions must account for existing cultural and professional norms and first address safety needs of nurses. Positive aspects from existing models of care delivery can be adapted and integrated into general nursing practice.