Consensus Guidelines for the Follow-Up Care of Long-Term Cancer Survivors and Their Families for Primary Care Nurses in Spain: A Modified Delphi Study.
Nerea Elizondo Rodríguez, Virginia La Rosa Salas, Marta Domingo-Osle and 3 others
PMID 41077426WHAT IT FOUND
Spanish primary care nurses reached consensus on follow-up plans for long-term cancer survivors and families: identify survivors, assess physical, psychosocial and socioeconomic needs, involve families, coordinate hospital and primary care, and use flexible consultations or telehealth as complements.
Key findings
01A modified Delphi consensus produced 58 follow-up care guidelines for long-term cancer survivors and their families.
02The guidelines cover six themes: identifying survivors, physical and psychosocial assessment, needs assessment, follow-up frequency, resource development, and care coordination.
03Experts agreed that survivor identification and recording should be done by nurses with survivorship expertise, but no consensus was reached on how identification should occur.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study asked nurses to agree on care recommendations; it did not test whether the guidelines improve survivors' or families' outcomes. The panel had 16 experts, all nurses, and used convenience sampling, so the recommendations may not represent all nurses or other health professionals. Survivors and their families were not participants, so their own needs and experiences were not directly included. The study was conducted in Spain, where advanced nursing roles are heterogeneous, so the guidelines may not fit other health systems. The guidelines are generic and need local adaptation and validation before use. No consensus was reached on how to identify long-term cancer survivors or on a fixed follow-up interval. The study focused on adult cancer survivors and excluded pediatric cancer survivors.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these guidelines as evidence that a structured survivorship plan improves cancer survivors' or families' outcomes. The study asked 16 nurses to agree on recommendations; it did not test patient care.