Science of Family Involvement in Advanced Cancer Care

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate describes her academic career with the research focus on cancer. The candidate argues that the level of research funding, the career track focusing on family caregiving, and the continuing mentorship of nursing, doctoral and post doctoral students and others interested in psycho-oncology will culminate in this senior scientist award leading to a research project. This research project will seek to describe how nurses can improve the role of family members in the caring for patients with advanced cancer. A mentoring program for pre- and post-doctoral students is described. A detailed tracking system for the mentoring activity so that outcomes can be determined is included. The candidate?s current funding and program of research is summarized. A secondary analysis of existing data for patients with advanced cancer and their family caregivers is proposed. The data are drawn from three studies: the current multi-site RCT, data from a small RCT, and an intervention study of patients and caregivers in a rural area. In each of these studies patients add their family members were exposed to a cognitive behavioral intervention designed to improve the levels of caregivers? involvement in the care of their patient. The interventions differed by dose of the nurse administered intervention and the time over which the dose was administered. These data will be evaluated to determine if the intervention had an effect on caregiver recognition of patient symptoms, caregiver involvement in care and finally patient outcomes. From this a classification of caregiver skill level will be constructed. These data will be the preliminary work for subsequent R01 applications. In summary, the candidate presents her research career and the mentoring of faculty interested in psychosocial oncology and a summary of cancer grants which have been supported through peer review. The R01 application will represent the capstone of an outstanding research career in community based cancer research. Protected time to accomplish this is assured.