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Cancer patients' view on rehabilitation and quality of life: a programme audit
Author(s) -
KORSTJENS I.,
MESTERS I.,
GIJSEN B.,
VAN DEN BORNE B.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
european journal of cancer care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1365-2354
pISSN - 0961-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2354.2007.00864.x
Subject(s) - psychosocial , medicine , rehabilitation , coping (psychology) , focus group , audit , quality of life (healthcare) , physical therapy , cohort , nursing , family medicine , clinical psychology , psychiatry , management , marketing , economics , business
An existing 12‐week cancer rehabilitation group programme, combining physical training and psychosocial sessions, was recently tested in a quantitative longitudinal cohort study ( n = 658) among adult patients who have problems coping with cancer. Results showed improvements in all quality of life domains. The objective of the present study was to explore patients' perspectives on how and to what extent the rehabilitation programme had met their needs in order to optimize the programme. Patients who participated in the programme no longer than 5 years ago were interviewed in three focus groups ( n = 23). Participants saw rehabilitation as provided by the programme as an important steppingstone in their ongoing recovery process and identified the integrated physical training, psychosocial sessions and patient‐to‐patient contacts as a powerful and supportive combination. Recommendations for improvements to the programme mainly concerned the psychosocial module. Information needs varied strongly among participants and, in this respect, it was hard to satisfy all of them. Participants suggested that the programme should focus more on developing skills to cope with cancer, its consequences and emerging problems after rehabilitation. In conclusion, participants valued the group‐based multi‐modal cancer rehabilitation programme and recommended to focus more on developing coping skills.