ONS Connect - November 2008 - (Page 11)

Laurel Northouse, RN, PhD, FAAN, is conducting research on family-based nursing interventions for caregivers of patients with cancer. You have seen this so many times: the look, the loss, the hope in a caregiver’s eyes. As the oncology nurse, you already attempt to set a plan in motion to assist this couple with coping and managing this dreaded disease. As the physician exits the room and closes the door, you are there alone with the couple; they are both stunned, crying, holding each other. You move your chair closer and make yourself present in their moment. They unfold from each other and see that you are still with them. They ask, “What are we going to do?” Family caregiving is the act of assisting someone you care about who is chronically ill or disabled and who is no longer able to care for him- or herself (National Family Caregivers Association [NFCA], 2002b). Statistically, more than 50 million people provide care for a chronically ill, disabled, or aged family member or friend during any given year, and the value of such family caregiving services is estimated to be $306 billion a year, which is almost twice as much as is actually spent on homecare and nursing home services combined (NFCA, 2002a). Developing Caregiver Interventions According to ONS member Paula Sherwood, RN, PhD, CNRN, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, these staggering numbers demand attention not only by nurses but by all healthcare professionals in an effort to develop appropriate support interventions and programs for cancer caregivers. Sherwood’s institution has been involved with the development and testing of interventions for family caregivers for more than 30 years. She says that some of the interventions that are now being modified for use with caregivers of patients with cancer build on the work of leaders in other specialties such as dementia. Interventions currently being studied at Sherwood’s institution “range from face-to-face meetings to telephone support to Web-based and support group November 2008 ONS CONNECT 11

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ONS Connect - November 2008 Contents Editor's Note Just In Lean on Me You Tell Us A Year in the Life-- Month Eleven Put Evidence Into Practice to Manage Caregiver Strain and Burden Web Connect Capitol Connection Caregiver Care New Technique Monitors Patients with NSCLC Calendar of Events Working for You Staying on Top

ONS Connect - November 2008

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