An evaluation of the impact of a cancer support specialist service on families of children with cancer and the multidisciplinary team in a children's health service in Ireland.
Maryanne Murphy, Hugh Fulham-McQuillan, Agnes Higgins and 1 others
PMID 39760316WHAT IT FOUND
Parents and team members described a Cancer Support Specialist service as offering informal relational, navigational, mediation, respite and sibling support.
They reported it helped families access support and allowed team members more time for clinical work.
Key findings
01Parents described the Cancer Support Specialist as a readily available person whose sole role was to support families informally.
02Parents reported that Cancer Support Specialists helped them navigate charities, grants and services, and that sibling support helped refocus attention on children who had received less attention.
03Multidisciplinary team members reported that Cancer Support Specialists could support families outside weekday hours and that this allowed nurses more time for nursing jobs.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used purposive, non-probability sampling, so participants may not represent all families or multidisciplinary team members. Only eight family members were interviewed, and they may have been more satisfied with the service than families who did not take part. Parents may have avoided negative comments because they feared harming the service's funding. Interviews took place during an emotionally difficult time, which may affect recall. The service was new, and community roles were still being implemented, so longer-term impacts may not be apparent. Findings are limited by the organisational context of one children's health service in Ireland. The study reports qualitative themes, not measured clinical or psychosocial outcomes.
Declared interests
No explicit conflict-of-interest declaration is provided. The evaluated service arose from a partnership between the Katie Nugent Fund, the Cancer Fund for Children and Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin Hospital.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the Cancer Support Specialist service improves family outcomes or reduces multidisciplinary team workload. The paper reports qualitative perceptions from 31 participants, including only 8 family members, and measured no outcomes.