Advanced Practitioner-Led Shared Visits: A Novel Approach to Cancer Survivorship

The continued increase in the number of cancer survivors is encouraging and credited to better prevention, screening, and treatment. Cancer care authorities call for survivorship follow-up focusing on surveillance, health behaviors, and lingering effects of treatment. Despite the recommendations, cancer centers struggle to provide cost-effective, time efficient, comprehensive programming to address this call.

The primary objectives of this quality improvement project were to (1) develop and pilot a shared survivorship visit for breast cancer survivors and (2) evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the program.

The participants in this 4-week pilot project included five female breast cancer survivors, ages 18 and older, diagnosed with stage I, II, or III breast cancer within the past year. Each survivor completed a one-time, 2-hour shared survivorship visit.

The shared, interdisciplinary survivorship visit was directed by an advanced practice nurse. A team of nursing and ancillary experts presented information on their specialized area. Upon completion of the visit, the survivor received an individualized survivorship care plan. There were 21 eligible breast cancer survivors and 5 participants. The pilot was successfully implemented, acknowledged the feasibility, and identified the adaptability to other cancer survivors. An evaluation concluded that the APRN-led, shared survivorship visit model was accepted by the patients and the survivorship team. The shared survivorship visits will be implemented into the cancer care program to address the needs of breast cancer survivors. Furthermore, there will be an expansion of the shared survivorship visits to meet the needs of those with other types of cancers.