Qualitative Research:Care Plan to Cancer Survivors (Post-Treatment) (Research Paper Sample)

EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE TASK 1
Name of Student
Institution affiliation
EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE TASK 1
Qualitative research of the care plan accorded to cancer survivors during the post treatment period.
Background
For many cancer survivors, a number of medical and psychosocial needs usually arise during the post-treatment period. Most of these needs are usually unaddressed and there is therefore, need to improve the quality of survivorship care. It is reported that an astonishing figure of 10 million individuals in America have a close personal history of cancer with the figure been expected to raise in the near future with advances in technology that have helped in making screening of cancer easier (Hewitt et al., 2007).
Literature Review
The article opines that the survivorship care entails a four-pronged approach including; prevention of recurrence, assessment of both medical and psychosocial effects, an intervention plan for the side effects associated with treatment and finally a coordination plan between the specialists and primary care givers such as nurses in a bid to ensuring that the patients’ needs are met (Hewitt et al., 2007). In creating the care plan for the survivorship care, a number of issues are usually bound to arise ranging from such as what the care plan should entail and the role of primary care givers in implementing the plan (Hewitt et al., 2007).
Methodology
Data was collected vide use of three focus groups of cancer survivors with each group comprising of 10-12 participants diagnosed with different types of cancer. The focus groups included a group composed of senior citizens cancer survivors aged 56 to 70 years, one composed of male survivors aged between 25 to 55 years and the last group composed of only female survivors within the same age bracket. All participants shared one thing in common which is they all had completed their primary treatment for the different types of cancer (Hewitt et al., 2007).
The same method of focus groups was used to collect information from 34 selected nurses where three groups were formed and two focus groups on physicians with the intention of learning their reactions to receipt of a care plan. Interviews were also conducted on 20 oncologists specializing on different types of cancer (Hewitt et al., 2007).
Data Analysis
Most of the cancer survivors in all three focus groups stated that they had never received any written follow-up from the primary care givers during the post-treatment plan (Hewitt et al., 2007). This, according to them, was not a sufficient survivorship care plan since it showed a lack of keen interest from the care givers and thus they felt like both their survivorship and psychosocial needs were not sufficiently attended to.
Researcher’s conclusion
A written follow up care plan is helpful in improving the quality of healthcare accorded to cancer survivors during the post-treatment period.
Quantitative research on post-treatment regrets among young breast cancer survivors
Background
Statistics show that an approximated 12% of women diagnosed with breast cancer usually experience anxiety and uncertainty which is associated with the diagnosis of the same. As a result, most of these patients have over the years experienced adverse physical and psychosocial side effects from the treatment of breast cancer. All this is associated with the lack of a concrete care plan for such survivors during the post-treatment period (Fernandes-Taylor & Bloom, 2011).
Literature Review
Most of the available methods of treatment options for breast cancer usually involve participatory decision making whereby both the patient and health care givers are involved in discussions (Fernandes-Taylor & Bloom, 2011). This is so because the treatment options available are tied to the woman’s self-image for instance reconstruction and surgery. Where there is lack of clinical care plan after the treatment process, patients might start regretting based on their belief that they chose a suboptimal treatment option (Fernandes-Taylor & Bloom, 2011).
Methodology
Data was collected through an interview-based dataset regarding the psychosocial characteristics of young