Following on the theme from my previous editorial (Mayer, 2014), I want to address another goal identified in Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis (Institute of Medicine, 2013): engaged patients. The report identified patient engagement as the number one recommendation. The recommendation states that patients and their families should be given understandable information about their cancer (see Figure 1). But this recommendation is incomplete without including concepts about patient-centered communication, shared decision making, and patient activation. I want to explore each of these and then circle back to how we can encourage patient engagement in cancer care.
References
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Greene, J., & Hibbard, J.H. (2011). Why does patient activation matter? An examination of the relationships between patient activation and health-related outcomes. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27, 520-526. doi:10.1007/s11606-011-1931-2
Hibbard, J.H., & Greene, J. (2013). What the evidence shows about patient activation: Better health outcomes and care experiences; fewer data on costs. Health Affairs, 32, 207-214. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1061
Hibbard, J.H., Greene, J., & Overton V. (2013). Patients with lower activation associated with higher costs; delivery systems should know their patients' ‘scores’. Health Affairs, 32, 216-222. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1064
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Institute of Medicine. (2013). Delivering high-quality cancer care: Charting a new course for a system in crisis. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Mayer, D.K. (2014). How can we deliver high-quality cancer care in a healthcare system in crisis? Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 18, 381-382. doi:10.1188/14.CJON.381-382
Osborn, R., & Squires, D. (2012). International perspectives on patient engagement: Results from the 2011 Commonwealth Fund Survey. Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, 35, 118-128.
Thorne, S. (1988). Helpful and unhelpful communications in cancer care: The patients' perspective. Oncology Nursing Forum, 15(7), 167-172.