Developing a nurse-led survivorship service for patients with lymphoma

PurposeThere are two million people in the UK living with cancer and this figure is rising each year. The consequences of cancer and its treatment are devastating and many patients suffer long-term effects for years after completion of treatment. National UK policy recognises that current follow-up fails to meet patients' survivorship needs and new methods of service-delivery are required. An analysis of local service provision in a London teaching hospital demonstrated that the needs of patients with lymphoma were not being met. The aim of this project was to develop a nurse-led service that would provide comprehensive survivorship care for patients with lymphoma.MethodA nurse-led survivorship service was implemented using a comprehensive service development framework and was evaluated through a variety of methods such as a patient satisfaction questionnaire, note audit, waiting time audit and an analysis of patients comment and suggestions.ResultsThe project was successfully implemented with risk management and advanced practice requirements addressed. It was demonstrated that patients were satisfied with the new service, the quality of documentation had improved and waiting times were reduced.ConclusionThis work adds to the current survivorship knowledge-base and provides evidence that nurses can provide safe and effective survivorship care for patients with lymphoma.