A Tale of Two Conditions: 50 Years of Chronic Illness and Cancer From a Nursing Perspective

In this commentary, I consider the disparity between the care we see as a necessity for cancer patients and the lack of care we afford to many persons with chronic disease.

I ground my arguments in my own clinical practice and research experiences over a 50-year period augmented by reference to available literature sources.

In tracing developments within the fields of cancer and chronic illness care, I draw on my own research and that of others.

Although chronic illness has long been recognised as causing the majority of the burden on our health care systems and as a significant source of suffering in our society, it has not attracted the level of enthusiasm from researchers, policy makers, and health care systems that we have seen in the context of other diseases such as cancer. Nurses have an intimate knowledge of the suffering occasioned by chronic illness; however, it has been difficult for nursing to mobilise coordinated action in prioritising a re-balance of health systems to better serve those with chronic conditions.

The advent of medical assistance in dying in Canada has shed a spotlight on the implications of the discrepancy between our prioritising patient need in the care and support of patients with conditions such as cancer, in contrast with the supports and services we make available to those with chronic conditions.

Although nursing intimately engages with the burden of chronic illness, it has not mobilized coherent advocacy toward strengthening our societal commitment to this aspect of our care systems.

There is an opportunity for nursing to make a meaningful difference in a fundamental health care system inequity if we can come to understand that chronic illness is as deserving of our collective research, practice change, and policy attention as is cancer.

No patient or public contribution.