None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Patients with colorectal cancer are often required to navigate a complex system involving a diverse range of medical, nursing and allied health practitioners in both hospital and community settings. Improving care coordination, patients’ experience of care and patient outcomes are widely recognised as priorities for the improvement of cancer services. A simple strategy that could have wide application for patients in regional and rual Australia as well as those in metropolitan centres is a centralised telephone-based ‘remote access’ cancer care coordination intervention, administered by a cancer nurse. This strategy will be implemented and evaluated in this study to determine whether it improves care coordination and patient outcomes in the six months following cancer surgery. Over a period of 2 years, 720 patients who undergo surgery for a newly diagnosed colorectal cancer will be recruited. Participants will be randomised to the intervention or control (usual care) group. Those in the intervention group will receive the nursing care coordination and support service telephone calls from the cancer nurse at 3 days, 10 days, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months after discharge from hospital. Those in the control group will receive courtesy calls only from the research team in the first week following discharge from hospital, and then again at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months following discharge. All participants will be asked to complete questionnaires relating to quality of life and psychological distress at baseline (just prior to, or in the days following, surgery for colorectal cancer). They will then complete these questionnaires, as well as additional questions relating to satisfaction with treatment, health service utilisation and care coordination at 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge.
Interventions
A centralised telephone-based ‘remote access’ cancer care coordination intervention, administered by a cancer nurse. After submitting a self-complete questionnaire at baseline (just prior to, or in the days following, surgery for colorectal cancer), participants will be randomised into the intervention or control group. Patients in the intervention group will receive the nursing care coordination and support service telephone calls from the cancer nurse at 3 days, 10 days, 1 month, 3 months, an
A centralised telephone-based ‘remote access’ cancer care coordination intervention, administered by a cancer nurse. After submitting a self-complete questionnaire at baseline (just prior to, or in the days following, surgery for colorectal cancer), participants will be randomised into the intervention or control group. Patients in the intervention group will receive the nursing care coordination and support service telephone calls from the cancer nurse at 3 days, 10 days, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after their discharge from hospital.
Sponsors
A/Prof Jane Young
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Patients who: * Are aged 18 years or more * Are having surgery for a newly diagnosed primary colorectal cancer (Dukes stage A-D) * Are aware of cancer diagnosis * Are able to understand the study and give consent
Exclusion criteria
Patients who: * Are diagnosed with recurrent colorectal cancer * Die during the admission * Are cognitively impaired or cannot give informed consent * Do not have access to a telephone at their primary residence * Do not plan to reside in Australia for the next 6 months * Are hearing impaired to a level that they are unable to participate in a telephone conversation * Do not speak and read English to a level that would allow them to participate in the telephone discussions and follow-up interviews (unless a family member or friend is able to translate for them).
Outcome results
None listed