(Press-News.org) Patients battling cancer have a better experience of care at hospitals that employ more cancer specialist nurses.
Research from the University of Southampton, shows that patients of better staffed hospitals are more likely to report being given more emotional support by nurses who work well together on wards.
Study author Peter Griffiths, Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Southampton, comments: "Cancer and its treatment can place a huge burden, both physical and psychological, on patients. Supporting people with cancer on the journey from diagnosis to treatment and beyond, which for increasing numbers includes long term survival, is a key challenge for health services. Specialist nurses have been identified as having a key role in providing support and the number employed by the NHS has increased in recent decades, however with the strain on NHS funding there is no guarantee about the future of those posts.
"This is the first direct evidence that a widespread policy of employing more specialist nurses is linked to measurable benefits to patients. The absolute differences we see are small but if your odds of receiving good emotional support are increased by 15% I suspect most of us would take it if we were being treated for cancer."
The study, published today (6 June 2103) in the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, reviewed existing data from the 2010 National Cancer Patient Experience Survey.
Analysis showed small but important differences in experiences of care. Patients of better staffed trusts were more likely to report that people treating and caring for them worked well together and they received enough emotional support during outpatient treatment. Women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer were also 34% more likely to report that hospital staff do everything possible to control the side effects of chemotherapy in trusts with the most clinical nurse specialists.
Professor Griffiths adds: "The message from patients on this has been clear for some time – many of them value the support of specialist nurses. But in these difficult times many trusts are looking to save money and evidence that clearly links the employment of specialist nurses to better patient experience is important. Trusts should realise that if these posts are cut patient experience can suffer."
Alison Richardson, co-author of the study and Professor of Cancer Nursing and End of Life Care at Southampton General Hospital and the University of Southampton, says: "This research is important for hospitals as it demonstrates variability in Cancer Nurse Specialist provision across different sites and that specific cancer multidisciplinary teams can have an impact on the quality of cancer patient experience. They need to be aware that any decision to reduce the number of these types of nurses could have a detrimental effect on patients."
Macmillan Cancer Support has been committed to establishing and providing cancer nurse specialist roles throughout the NHS. Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support comments: "This research backs up the wealth of evidence showing just how important cancer nurse specialists are, especially for improving cancer patient experience.
"Sadly access to these nurses varies across the country and by cancer type, while the number of people with cancer is increasing. It is essential that cancer nurse specialist roles are protected and every effort is made for more cancer patients to have access to one."
### END
More cancer specialist nurses to improve hospital care
2013-06-06
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
A CNIO study tracks the evolutionary history of a cancer-related gene
2013-06-06
How and when evolution generates diversity or gives form to proteins, living beings' functional building blocks, are essential questions that still surround the theory of evolution. In humans, the majority of genes have emerged via genetic duplication, a strategy in which a gene generates two identical copies that can evolve to generate different proteins.
A study published today by scientists from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) describes how a genetic duplication that took place in the vertebrate ancestor some 500 million years ago encouraged the ...
Basic science points to clinical application in stopping tumor survival in low-oxygen environments
2013-06-06
As tumors grow, their centers are squeezed of oxygen. And so tumors must flip specific genetic switches to survive in these hypoxic environments. A series of studies funded to do only basic science and published today in the journal Cell reports the serendipitous discovery of a druggable target necessary for the survival of tumors in these low-oxygen environments.
"This is a clear example of starting with a basic biology question that now turns out to be relevant to patients," says Joaquin Espinosa, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, associate ...
'Caldas tear' resolves puzzling seismic activity beneath Colombia
2013-06-06
SAN FRANCISCO, June 6, 2013 -- Colombia sits atop a complex geological area where three tectonic plates are interacting, producing seismicity patterns that have puzzled seismologists for years. Now seismologists have identified the "Caldas tear," which is a break in a slab that separates two subducting plates and accounts for curious features, including a "nest" of seismic activity beneath east-central Colombia and high grade mineral deposits on the surface.
In a paper published in the June issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), researchers ...
New DNA test on roo poo identifies species
2013-06-06
University of Adelaide researchers have developed a simple and cost-effective DNA test to identify kangaroo species from their droppings which will boost the ability to manage and conserve kangaroo populations.
The researchers developed the test using hundreds of collected droppings across north-eastern Australia and extracting DNA from the samples, published in the conservation journal Wildlife Research.
A unique pattern of DNA fragmentation was established for each species, eliminating the need for gene sequencing which is costly, much more time-consuming and requires ...
Added benefit of ingenol mebutate is not proven
2013-06-06
The drug ingenol mebutate (trade name: Picato) has been approved in Germany since November 2012 as a gel for the treatment of certain forms of actinic keratosis in adults. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG) the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over diclofenac/hyaluronic acid gel. Such an added benefit cannot be derived from the dossier, however, as the drug manufacturer did not submit any relevant data: it did ...
Molecular VELCRO for chromosome stability
2013-06-06
The genome is full of sequence repetitions. Sequence motif is added after sequence motif, sometimes more than a hundred times. Erratically it seems. And these sequence motifs bind proteins that control transcription factors in regions of the genome where no transcription should occur. A conundrum.
Nicolas Thomä, group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, and his team together with the team of David Shore at the University of Geneva, have now been able to give an answer and assign a function to this seeming inconsistency. In a study published ...
Added benefit of dapagliflozin is not proven
2013-06-06
Dapagliflozin (trade name: Forxiga) has been approved in Germany since November 2012 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (AMNOG) the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether this new drug offers an added benefit over the current standard therapy. No such added benefit can be derived from the dossier, however, because the drug manufacturer did not present any relevant data for any of the possible therapeutic indications ...
Big game hunting in Spain has increased in the last 30 years
2013-06-06
Since ancient times, the pressures of excessive hunting have contributed to the gradual decline of wildlife populations and even the extinction of certain species in many areas.
Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and the Centre for Forestry Research (INIA-CIFOR) have studied the developments in big game in Spain between 1972 and 2007 to gain an understanding of the hunting trends of the last decades.
"We have analysed the general trends in official statistics on hunters, hunting weapons, hunting grounds and captures. Our main conclusion is that ...
Spain receives ever more solar radiation
2013-06-06
Solar radiation in Spain has increased by 2.3% every decade since the 1980s, according to a study by researchers from the University of Girona and the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. This increase is linked to the decreased presence of clouds, which has increased the amount of direct radiation reaching us from the Sun.
"The mean annual G series over Spain shows a tendency to increase during the 1985-2010 period, with a significant linear trend of + 3.9 W m-2 [2.3% more] per decade." This is the main conclusion of a study published in the magazine 'Global ...
Alpine lakes reflect climate change
2013-06-06
Increases in temperature as a result of climate change are mirrored in lake waters where temperatures are also on the rise. A new study, by Dr. Martin Dokulil, retired researcher from the Institute for Limnology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, forecasts surface water temperatures in large Austrian lakes for 2050 and discusses the impact on the lakes' structure, function and water quality. The research is published online in Springer's journal Hydrobiologia.
Austria has a multitude of lakes varying widely in type, size, flushing, altitude and geographic location. ...