Identifying the nonmedical concerns of patients with ocular melanoma

1. The task of enhancing patients' quality of life begins with identifying their needs and concerns. This process requires a knowledge base of the needs, problems, and barriers patients face as they struggle with the physical, psychological, and social sequelae of cancer. 2. To enhance knowledge of the psychosocial consequences of ocular melanoma and to facilitate supportive care planning, a study was initiated to identify patients' needs arising from the symptom management and nonmedical concerns of these patients, barriers to resolving these needs, and patients' service preferences. 3. The results indicate that the expressed needs inventory and the scales measuring unexpressed needs represent a valid and reliable approach to needs assessment, and that this approach is able to identify the needs resulting from patients' symptom management and nonmedical concerns.