Supportive Care

‘My Choices, My Wishes’ Program and Its Effect on Chemotherapy at the End of Life and Advance Care Directive Documentation

Jessica Tamar Davis, DNP, AOCNP®, ACHPN

Background: Oncology patients have tremendous symptom burden both physically and emotionally. Palliative care (PC) improves quality of life and prevents suffering. Advance care planning (ACP) empowers patients to articulate goals of thei...

Silent Conversations: Goals of Care and End-of-Life Quality in Relapsed High-Risk Leukemia

Lacy Jo Graham, DNP, APRN-C, Amy Hite, DNP, APRN-C, Jennifer Harris, PhD, FNP-C, and Greg Belcher, PhD

Background: Advanced practice providers (APPs) affect high-quality health care through leadership, evidence-based practice implementation, and quality improvement projects. When planning solutions to clinical problems, leadership must so...

Integration of an APP-Led Supportive and Palliative Oncology Care Program: A Quality Improvement Project

Cecilia Motschenbacher, DNP, ARNP, FNP-C, ACHPN, AOCNP®, and Tanya Cohn, PhD, MEd, RN

Patients with advanced cancer have been found to demonstrate severe symptoms and low quality of life at diagnosis; therefore, it is imperative that they have early access to palliative care services along the continuum of care. Oncology ...

Early Palliative Care for Oncology Patients: How APRNs Can Take the Lead

Heidi Mason,(1,2) DNP, ACNP-BC, Mary Beth DeRubeis,(2) MSN, FNP-BC, and Beth Hesseltine,(2) MSN, FNP-C

Background: Patients with cancer need expert and multidisciplinary care throughout the trajectory of their illness. Palliative care should be instituted early in the course of their disease. Early palliative care enables patients and the...

Palliative Integration Into Ambulatory Oncology: An Advance Care Planning Quality Improvement Project

Amanda Hudson Lucas,(1) DNP, RN, ACNS-BC, ACHPN, and Amy Dimmer,(2) DNP, RN, ACCNS-AG

Advance care planning (ACP) is essential to ensuring that patient-centered end-of-life goals are respected if a health crisis occurs. Advanced practitioner barriers to ACP include insufficient time and limited confidence in discussions. ...

Integration of Palliative Care in the Role of the Oncology Advanced Practice Nurse

Betty R. Ferrell,(1) RN, PhD, MA, FAAN, FPCN, CHPN, Rose Virani,(1) RNC, MHA, FPCN, Elinor Han,(1) BA, and Polly Mazanec,(2) PhD, ACNP-BC, AOCN®, FPCN, FAAN

Numerous organizations have cited the increasing demand for palliative care in oncology and the challenge of a limited workforce to deliver specialty palliative care. Advanced practitioners in oncology can provide generalist or primary p...

Advance Care Planning and End-Of-Life Communications: Practical Tips for Oncology Advanced Practitioners

Poonam Goswami, DNP, FNP-C, AOCNP®

Advance care planning discussions ensure patients’ values and goals of care, including the freedom to choose their place of death, are respected. The benefits of advance care planning and early end-of-life care discussions are often dela...

Utilizing a Palliative Care Screening Tool in Patients With Glioblastoma

Jung Young Kim,(1) DNP, APRN, ANP, Katherine B. Peters,(1) MD, PhD, FAAN, James E. Herndon II,(2) PhD, and Mary Lou Affronti,(1) DNP, RN, MHSc, ANP

Patients with glioblastoma have poor overall survival and experience significant burden from neurologic decline and adverse treatment effects. Despite the well-known benefits of early palliative care integration with oncology care, utili...

Improvements in Advance Care Planning Can Translate to Patient Comfort

Pamela Hallquist Viale, RN, MS, CNS, ANP

Assessing the Plain Language Planner for Communication About Common Palliative Care Medications

Using plain language to communicate about oncology and palliative care medications and symptoms is recommended as a communication strategy to address patient/family health literacy demands. This study tested the Plain Language Planner©, ...

Palliative Chemotherapy: Does It Only Provide False Hope? The Role of Palliative Care in a Young Patient With Newly Diagnosed Metastatic Adenocarcinoma

Case Study A 48-year-old female with recent diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of unknown origin and metastatic disease to the peritoneum initially presented to a nearby academic hospital with abdominal pain. She underwent exploratory laparoto...

Nurse Communication About Goals of Care

Abstract Conversations about goals of care with the patient and family are a critical component of advanced practice in oncology. However, there are often inadequate team structures, training, or resources available to assist advanced p...

Providing Intensive Palliative Care on an Inpatient Unit: A Full-Time Job