Nature-Based Supportive Care Opportunities: Responding to Health and Recovery Needs of People With Cancer

Background: Human health and nature is an emerging research field exploring nature's impact on health and well-being. Given preliminary evidence for positive health outcomes related to nature engagement in cancer populations, research is warranted to ascertain strategies for incorporating nature-based care opportunities as additional support care strategies for addressing multidimensional aspects of patients' health and recovery needs. Aim: To consolidate findings from a comprehensive research program investigating opportunities for nature-based supportive care interventions and oncology setting design and discern relevant applications in oncology and palliative care contexts. Methods: Drawing on findings from a program of mixed-method research that investigated nature-based engagement in oncology contexts, a 2-step analytic process was used to construct a conceptual framework for informing and guiding future nature-based oncology design. Firstly, concept analysis methodology was applied to generate new insight into the needs of people with cancer by extracting and synthesizing qualitative data describing participants´ own appraisal of nature´s role in their experiences of health and recovery. Next, patient-reported and expert-developed recommendations generated in an international Delphi study were aligned with the newly formulated concepts and incorporated into a guiding framework for nature-based supportive care. Results: Five theoretical concepts were formulated describing the reasons for why people with cancer engage with nature and the underlying needs these interactions address. These included: meaningful connections, distancing from the cancer experience, meaning-making, finding comfort and safety, and vital nurturance. Eight shared patient and expert recommendations were compiled, which correspond with the identified patient needs and propose nature-based initiatives to address them. Eleven additional patient recommendations arose as important when attending to the experiential qualities patients value when using nature for addressing their health and recovery needs. Conclusion: The proposed framework outlines salient findings about helpful nature-based care opportunities for ready access by healthcare practitioners, designers, researchers and patients themselves. Research collaboration that includes patient and expert engagement is critical for bringing together personal, practical and clinical perspectives that can ensure successful design and clinically safe delivery of nature-based supportive care solutions that are meaningful to people with cancer.