Saturday, September 17

Building Effective Partnerships in Nursing Practice and Research: Patient Advocacy Organizations and Nurses Supporting Each Other For Best Outcomes (227)

The engagement of patients and caregivers is increasingly more important in the design, conduct and dissemination of research (Kwon, Tandon, Islam, Riley, & Trinh-Shevrin, 2018). Patient advocacy organizations, such as Momcology, are often developed and led by patients, parents and/or caregivers. These organizations are one mechanism to consider when working to implement community engagement and recruitment strategies. Community engagement is far more than the addition of a community advisory board to organizations such as hospitals, agencies or research trials. Authentic engagement should mimic a partnership, including stakeholders in all phases of research from design, conduct, implementation, analysis and dissemination (Woolf, Zimmerman, Haley, & Krist, 2016).

Using Shared Experience to Define Optimal Care for Patients Receiving Blinatumomab on COG Clinical Trials (C228)

Targeted therapies that leverage and harness the immune system to treat malignancies have become one of the most rapidly growing treatment approaches in pediatric oncology. Blinatumomab, an immunotherapy, is one such approach which has generated significant momentum in the treatment of pediatric B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) (1). In the relapsed space Blinatumomab has demonstrated improved survival and decreased rates of significant toxicity, compared to standard chemotherapy.

A Collaborative Approach to the Development of Specialized Nursing Education in a Lower Middle-Income Country (Ghana) (229-1)

Children with cancer in low- and middle-income countries are four times more likely to die of the disease than those in high income countries. Expert nurses are critical to a successful pediatric oncology program, yet few opportunities exist for nurses across Ghana to receive specialized education.

Understanding the Current State of Pediatric Oncology Nursing Quality Measurement in Free-Standing Children’s Hospitals Across the United States (229-2)

The impact of nursing care on patient outcomes has been demonstrated in adult and pediatric settings but limited attention has been given to standardized measurement of pediatric oncology nursing care.

With advances in pediatric cancer therapy, patients may be offered multiple treatment modalities which require intensive nursing support. To provide high quality care for these complex patients with evolving needs, pediatric oncology nurses require specialized skills, knowledge and appropriate resources. Given the gap in current literature addressing the impact of nurse sensitive measures that impact the quality of nursing care across the pediatric oncology continuum, the first step was to identify these potential measures. The ability to identify key performance measures and to articulate their value in the delivery of nursing care is central to improving the quality of the patient/family/employee experience in this highly complex and specialized environment. Using process measures allows for greater understanding of the extent to which clinical care is following best practice.