Development and assessment of the feasibility of a Nurse-Led Care Program for cancer patients in a Chemotherapy Day Center

Background: The increasing number of cancer patients and inadequate communication in clinics are posing challenges to cancer patients receiving outpatient-based chemotherapy and healthcare providers. A nurse-led care program was proposed as one way of dealing with at least some of these challenges. Objective: The objectives of the pilot study were to assess the feasibility of the subject recruitment, care, and data collection procedures and to explore the acceptability of this program. Methods: A pilot study with a 1-group pretest-posttest design was conducted. Five cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in a chemotherapy day center participated. Each patient had a nurse consultation before chemotherapy and received 2 telephone calls after the first and second cycles of chemotherapy. Four questionnaires were adopted to evaluate the subjects’ quality of life, self-efficacy, symptom experiences, and satisfaction with care. Questionnaires were completed before the chemotherapy and after the second cycle. The subjects were also interviewed to understand their comments on the service. Results: The recruitment, care, and data collection procedures were completed smoothly. Slight changes were observed in quality of life and self-efficacy. All 5 subjects were highly satisfied with the care. Conclusions: The nurse-led care