AJHW抄録（英文）

https://doi.org/10.24552/00002162 ©青森県立保健大学

 

Information

Team medical care for cancer outpatients on anticancer medication therapy: Reality and challenges

Tomomi Honma, Akiko Denpoya and Hiromi Narui

Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aomori University of Health and Welfare

（Recieved February 15, 2021; Accepted April 6, 2021）

 

ABSTRACT
 

［Objective］This study aims to clarify the reality and challenges faced by medical teams that support cancer outpatients taking medication.
 

［Methods］A semi-structured interview survey was conducted with 33 professionals working at five designated cancer care hospitals. The results were qualitatively and inductively analyzed.

 

［Results］Six situations were identified as those facing medical teams that support cancer outpatients: team members who work only in certain occupations collaborate at each hospital; cooperation with local medical services is limited; outpatient treatment goals are not shared among personnel of multiple job types; professionals do not share similar views about what support to provide to cancer patients; team members fail to develop fifty-fifty relationships, and they lack an understanding of other team members’ jobs; and teams have too few professionals for proper outpatient treatment. The challenges consist of needs in seven categories: continued support for outpatients provided by team members in multiple types of jobs; continued support for outpatients provided through cooperation with local medical services; systems ensuring that outpatients and team members with multiple kinds of occupations share information; the enhanced sharing of outpatient treatment goals among team members with different types of jobs; increased awareness of the need for team members to help one another improve their expertise; the application of leadership skills; and the efficient assignment of professionals to outpatient departments.

 

［Conclusions］These results suggest the need for effective systems that promote team medical care to support cancer outpatients on medication. These should be useful for the following: enabling continual support for local medical services provided by hospital team members of diverse jobs; sharing outpatient treatment goals among team members of various jobs based on information-sharing with outpatients; increasing the awareness of the support that the medical team needs to provide, while addressing improvements in expertise; and allocating professionals who support outpatients full-time.

 

Key words: anticancer medication therapy, outpatient care, cancer patient, team medical care