Cancer rehabilitation in clinical practice : a qualitative study exploring contact nurses’ views on prerequisites
(2025) In BMC Nursing 24.- Abstract
Background: Individualized cancer rehabilitation should be an integral part of cancer care. Contact nurses play a key role in identifying patient needs and coordinating evidence-based interventions to support rehabilitation. However, cancer rehabilitation remains marginal in current practice, as contact nurses face challenges due to the lack of systematic processes for assessment, intervention, and follow-up, limiting its implementation across the cancer care trajectory. This study aims to explore contact nurses in cancer care views on their role in and prerequisites for cancer rehabilitation. Methods: Data were collected through 20 individual interviews with contact nurses working in Swedish cancer care and analyzed using qualitative... (More)
Background: Individualized cancer rehabilitation should be an integral part of cancer care. Contact nurses play a key role in identifying patient needs and coordinating evidence-based interventions to support rehabilitation. However, cancer rehabilitation remains marginal in current practice, as contact nurses face challenges due to the lack of systematic processes for assessment, intervention, and follow-up, limiting its implementation across the cancer care trajectory. This study aims to explore contact nurses in cancer care views on their role in and prerequisites for cancer rehabilitation. Methods: Data were collected through 20 individual interviews with contact nurses working in Swedish cancer care and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: A holistic approach to cancer rehabilitation was emphasized, yet establishing routines for assessment and addressing patients’ changing needs was described as challenging. Contact nurses experienced themselves as responsible for rehabilitation even though their role often was unclear. Rehabilitation was further seen as a process often determined by the medical trajectory rather than patients’ needs. To establish prerequisites for cancer rehabilitation supportive leadership and sufficient resources is essential. Conclusion: There is a gap between cancer rehabilitation guidelines and their implementation in clinical practice, emphasizing the need for structure to support contact nurses to provide evidence-based individualized cancer rehabilitation. To enable cancer rehabilitation, supportive leadership at the organizational level is essential for contact nurses to establish routines in their clinical practice. These routines should align the rehabilitation process with patient needs, ensuring that rehabilitative services are effectively integrated into regular healthcare visits. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.
(Less)
- author
- Melander, Wenche
LU
; Rosell, Linn LU
; Larsson, Anna Maria LU ; Lagergren, Pernilla and Malmström, Marlene LU
- organization
-
- LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
- Proactive Integrated Care (research group)
- Breast cancer treatment
- The Liquid Biopsy and Tumor Progression in Breast Cancer (research group)
- The Institute for Palliative Care (research group)
- Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery (research group)
- Breast Cancer Surgery (research group)
- publishing date
- 2025-02-27
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Cancer care, Needs, Nursing, Qualitative, Rehabilitation
- in
- BMC Nursing
- volume
- 24
- article number
- 223
- publisher
- BioMed Central (BMC)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:40016784
- pmid:40016784
- scopus:85219622098
- ISSN
- 1472-6955
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12912-025-02866-8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.
- id
- 588631f7-f2cb-4618-999c-a6222f78eb1c
- date added to LUP
- 2025-05-12 11:33:32
- date last changed
- 2025-08-05 04:22:24
@article{588631f7-f2cb-4618-999c-a6222f78eb1c, abstract = {{<p>Background: Individualized cancer rehabilitation should be an integral part of cancer care. Contact nurses play a key role in identifying patient needs and coordinating evidence-based interventions to support rehabilitation. However, cancer rehabilitation remains marginal in current practice, as contact nurses face challenges due to the lack of systematic processes for assessment, intervention, and follow-up, limiting its implementation across the cancer care trajectory. This study aims to explore contact nurses in cancer care views on their role in and prerequisites for cancer rehabilitation. Methods: Data were collected through 20 individual interviews with contact nurses working in Swedish cancer care and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: A holistic approach to cancer rehabilitation was emphasized, yet establishing routines for assessment and addressing patients’ changing needs was described as challenging. Contact nurses experienced themselves as responsible for rehabilitation even though their role often was unclear. Rehabilitation was further seen as a process often determined by the medical trajectory rather than patients’ needs. To establish prerequisites for cancer rehabilitation supportive leadership and sufficient resources is essential. Conclusion: There is a gap between cancer rehabilitation guidelines and their implementation in clinical practice, emphasizing the need for structure to support contact nurses to provide evidence-based individualized cancer rehabilitation. To enable cancer rehabilitation, supportive leadership at the organizational level is essential for contact nurses to establish routines in their clinical practice. These routines should align the rehabilitation process with patient needs, ensuring that rehabilitative services are effectively integrated into regular healthcare visits. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.</p>}}, author = {{Melander, Wenche and Rosell, Linn and Larsson, Anna Maria and Lagergren, Pernilla and Malmström, Marlene}}, issn = {{1472-6955}}, keywords = {{Cancer care; Needs; Nursing; Qualitative; Rehabilitation}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{02}}, publisher = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}}, series = {{BMC Nursing}}, title = {{Cancer rehabilitation in clinical practice : a qualitative study exploring contact nurses’ views on prerequisites}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12912-025-02866-8}}, doi = {{10.1186/s12912-025-02866-8}}, volume = {{24}}, year = {{2025}}, }