GCS Nurses Attend National Conference on Cancer Survivorship Care

Interdisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, social workers and other health professionals such as psychologists, radiation technologists, chaplains and administrators are involved in the multitude of treatment options for cancer patients during the course of their illness. These professionals, however, are inadequately prepared to meet the follow-up needs of cancer survivors.

Dawn Key, MSN, APRN-BC, FNP, AOCN, and Kennon McCollum DNP, APRN-BC, nurse practitioners at GCS, recently attended a comprehensive three-day course for professional oncology nurses on survivorship care. The City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center received a 5- year grant from the National Cancer Institute to conduct the course. Only 50 nurses were competitively selected from cancer settings across the country to attend.

The principal goal of the course was to provide nurses with information on survivorship care issues and resources to implement goals aimed at improving survivorship care in their own practice and their cancer setting. A distinguished faculty of researchers, educators, authors and leaders in the field of survivorship care discussed the essential components of care including communication, prevention, detection and surveillance as well as interventions related to physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of cancer survivors.