Search

Background:Parents of children newly diagnosed with cancer require specialized knowledge and skills in order to safely care for their children at home. The Children's Oncology Group (COG) developed expert consensus recommendations to guide new diagnosis education; however, these recommendations have not been empirically tested. Methods:We used a sequential two-cohort study design to test a nurse-led Structured Discharge Teaching Intervention (SDTI) that operationalizes the COG expert recommendations in the setting of a tertiary children's hospital. Outcomes included parent Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale (RHDS); Quality of Discharge Teaching Scale (QDTS); Post-Discharge Coping Difficulty (PDCD); Nurse Satisfaction; and post-discharge unplanned healthcare utilization. Results:The process for discharge education changed significantly before and after implementation of the SDTI, with significantly fewer instances of one-day discharge teaching, and higher involvement of staff nurses in teaching. Overall, parental RHDS, QDTS, and PDCD scores were similar in the unintervened and intervened cohorts. Almost 60% of patients had unplanned healthcare encounters during the first 30 days following their initial hospital discharge. Overall nurse satisfaction with the quality and process of discharge education significantly increased post-intervention. Discussion:Although the structure for and process of delivering discharge education changed significantly with implementation of the SDTI, parent RHDS and QDTS scores remained uniformly high and PDCD scores and non-preventable unplanned healthcare utilization remained similar, while nurse satisfaction with the quality and process of discharge education significantly improved, suggesting that further testing of the SDTI across diverse pediatric oncology settings is warranted.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the feasibility of a large prospective trial aimed at improving chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) control in paediatric patients undergoing oral chemotherapy during acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) maintenance therapy.MethodsEnglish-speaking children, 4.0–17.99 years old and undergoing ALL maintenance treatment with an English-speaking guardian, were eligible to participate in this observational, serial, cross-sectional feasibility study. Data were collected from participants over one to three 7-day periods during months 2–3, 5–6 and 11–12 of ALL maintenance treatment. A future trial was considered feasible if the mean time to enrol 10 patients in each of three data collection periods was ≤1 year with ≥80% of patients returning evaluable data. CINV control was described as a secondary endpoint.ResultsTwenty-nine of 31 consenting patients (median age: 6.5 years, IQR: 5.1–9.2) completed the study: 10 in months 2–3, 10 in months 5–6 and 9 in months 11–12. The total time to recruit 29 patients was 1.2 years. In each of the three data collections periods, 72% of the patients provided evaluable data. Complete CINV control was reported in 6/21 (29%) evaluable study periods.ConclusionsA future trial to evaluate interventions to improve CINV control in patients with ALL undergoing oral maintenance chemotherapy as designed in this study is not feasible. An electronic data capture method and deferring patient recruitment until the mid-maintenance to late-maintenance phase should be considered in the design of a future trial.

Background:Blinatumomab is a promising immunotherapy agent that has been shown to improve survival outcomes in children diagnosed with relapsed B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Expanded use of blinatumomab in the treatment of childhood cancer is expected; however, clinician perspectives regarding administering this agent in healthcare and home settings have not been explored. Method:Semistructured interviews were conducted with clinicians (N= 13) from pediatric institutions across the United States and Canada. Qualitative data were analyzed using a constant comparative analysis three-stage method. Results:Participants were primarily nurses (92%), female (77%), and had greater than 10 years of pediatric oncology experience. The selective code and overarching theme identified was “A quality approach to blinatumomab delivery in pediatric oncology.” Clinicians described detailed processes that were created and implemented to promote a common goal of safe blinatumomab administration across the continuum of care. Clinicians shared how they engaged in planning activities and considered a variety of factors prior to and during blinatumomab administration. Clinicians also expressed a need to reflect and evaluate on previous patient experiences to create new or revise existing processes and workflows. Communication was also central to clinicians’ work. Clinicians provided recommendations to assist others with blinatumomab administration and offered suggestions for items that could help with implementing future clinical trials containing similar agents. Discussion:Findings suggest nurses are pivotal to establishing processes which support safe administration of immunotherapies, such as blinatumomab, while also considering patient-specific needs and promoting quality of life.