Articles

President Obama guaranteed Americans that after health reform became law they could keep their insurance plans and their doctors. It’s clear that this promise cannot be kept. Insurers and physicians are already reshaping their businesses as a result of Mr. Obama’s plan.

Steeplechase Cancer Center at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, New Jersey, was established in 2007 in response to community needs for easily accessible high-quality cancer care. The center is named for the steeplechase horse race, held each October in the neighboring community of Far Hills, New Jersey. Proceeds from the race are donated to the center and go to support expanded facilities and services.

Careful attention to a set of oral care measures may help patients avoid chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis, according to new research.

Results showed that a protocol that provides specific instructions on the various components of oral care can reduce the incidence and severity of mucositis in patients receiving chemotherapy. As examples, the protocol states how often patients should rinse and brush their teeth and what they should do if they develop mouth sores.

A pilot program whereby oncology nurses telephone patients shortly after their hospital discharge helps improve patient satisfaction with the discharge process and discharge instructions, according to early results.

Mary Ann Long, MS, RN, OCN, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo, New York, and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of discharge instructions in two groups of patients. One group had recently been discharged from the hospital after surgery for a gastrointestinal malignancy, and the other group had been discharged after treatment for leukemia.

April 2010 was the second National Safe Handling Month, a campaign designed to further education about the risks associated with handling hazardous drugs and safety measures that can prevent exposure to these agents. The initiative was supported by an unrestricted educational grant provided by Carmel Pharma, Inc, the maker of the PhaSeal closed-system drug transfer device (CSTD), and included regional and national educational activities. Read More ›

NEW ORLEANS—A 2007 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that psychosocial issues created or exacerbated by cancer are “palpable, important, and potentially crippling” but can be effectively addressed by services and interventions. The report, Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs, also acknowledged that appropriate psychosocial care is the “exception rather than the rule in cancer care today,” and a study by the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) bore this out.

Advance practice nurses play a critical role in the assessment and management of patients with chemotherapy-induced anemia. Read More ›

Dessie Brown, LPN, works with a lot of cancer patients and loves doing it because she is able to help them in a unique way. Brown has been diagnosed with breast cancer twice, first in 1992 and then again in August 2009. This Feb ruary she finished her last round of chemotherapy.

Despite their demanding jobs, Patricia Irouer Hughes, RN, MSN, BSN, OCN, and her colleagues on the oncology unit of Piedmont Healthcare in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area find time to volunteer in their community. "We are a special breed even though we cannot all be Florence Nightingale or Clara Barton," she says. Service learning or volunteerism was one of the requirements for acquiring her MSN degree from Regis University in Colorado, in keeping with the school motto "Men and Women in Service of Others."

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified six opioid products that will require Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS). Advanced practice nurses (APNs) who want to continue prescribing opioids will need to follow several new practices, according to an educational presentation by Marilyn Haas, PhD, RN, CNS, ANP-BC, nurse practitioner for palliative and supportive care at Care Partners in Asheville, North Carolina.