Patient perceptions of a community-based intervention designed to provide support post administration of anti-cancer systemic treatments: A qualitative evaluation.

PURPOSE: This paper reports on patient participant experiences of a larger randomised controlled trial evaluating a shared-care pathway intervention designed to support outpatients at home during their first three cycles of systemic anti-cancer therapies delivered in two large tertiary hospitals in Sydney, Australia. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of patient participants who received the intervention, which involved targeted home visits by community nurses post treatment administration.

METHODS: A qualitative inductive thematic analysis was used to examine data from semi-structured interviews with patients who received the intervention.

RESULTS: Twenty-five patient participants were interviewed. We identified four themes: Stepping into the unknown; Impact of availability of health and social care support; Building confidence to manage self-care; Uncertainty, frailty and co-morbidities. Targeted support at home is seen to be effective and welcomed by patients as early stages of each treatment cycle can be extremely challenging, particularly for those who are elderly, frail or with co-morbidities, and for those with limited health and social support.

CONCLUSION: Regular contact with community nursing services can, at least for some patients, support the development of patient self-efficacy in managing aspects of their own care. Some patients are sufficiently confident to self-manage some treatment side effects by treatment cycle four.