Improving Quality of Life and Quality of Care for Oncology Family Caregivers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ultimate aim of this training proposal is to improve quality of care and quality of life for those impacted by a loved one's cancer across the trajectory of illness. This proposal uses a quality of life model (QOL) to address physical, social, psychological and spiritual concerns associated with cancer and its treatment. Family caregivers (FC), although profoundly impacted by a loved one's cancer diagnosis, have received only minimal attention by most healthcare providers who are focused primarily upon the physical needs of the patient. The primary aim of this proposal is to develop and implement a national education program on family caregiving in cancer and this will be achieved through four annual workshops for two professionals each from 50 cancer treatment centers (total of N=400). Additional dissemination methods and an extensive evaluation will provide a basis for the continuing education of health care professionals beyond the project period. Specific Aims include: 1. Develop a comprehensive FC curriculum for training an interdisciplinary professional audience from cancer centers. The professional audience will include nurses, physicians and social workers as a first tier, and chaplains, psychologists, health educators and other professionals as a second tier. 2. Implement the Family Caregiving curriculum in national workshops to competitively selected staff from National Cancer Institute-designated clinical and comprehensive cancer centers, and community cancer centers as identified through the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC). 3. Evaluate the impact of this curriculum by measuring process and outcomes of the educational activities on family caregivers and change-efforts initiated by the participants that impact family caregivers. 4. Disseminate the findings through peer-reviewed publications, various oncology organizations and professional networks and develop a network of course participants to share experiences in dissemination of the FC curriculum to the staff of participating cancer centers. Describe successes and issues related to dissemination of project actions in cancer centers in terms of the characteristics of individual course participants, interdisciplinary teams, and institutions. This proposal is consistent with the NCI Cancer Plan for 2008 strategic goal to "Improve the Quality of Life for Cancer Patients, Survivors and their families". PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The ultimate aim of this training proposal is to improve quality of care and quality of life for family caregivers impacted by a loved one's cancer across the trajectory of illness. The primary aim of this proposal is to develop and implement a national education program on family caregiving in cancer and this will be achieved through four annual workshops for two professionals each from 50 cancer treatment centers. Thus a total of 400 participants is planned. Additional dissemination methods and an extensive evaluation will provide a basis for the continuing education of health care professionals beyond the project period.