Lessons learned from a social worker’s approach to advance care planning discussions with Chinese-immigrant oncology outpatients

Abstract

Purpose To examine Chinese-immigrant cancer patients’ openness to advance care planning (ACP) in an outpatient oncology setting. Design Retrospective review of social work assessment data. Sample 150 Chinese-immigrant patient charts were reviewed (55% Cantonese, 45% Mandarin). Methods Data were summarized descriptively and with logistic regression analyses. Findings Sixteen percent of patients had completed ACP prior to meeting with the oncology social worker (OSW). Twenty percent of patients agreed to complete a health care proxy (HCP) after receiving culturally-tailored education in their language of origin from the OSW, while 75% remained open to ongoing consideration of ACP and HCP completion. Conclusions This study illuminates how Chinese immigrants engage in ACP discussions in an oncology setting. Implications for psychosocial provider OSWs can play an integral role in advocating, educating, and intervening with this population and can assist the interdisciplinary team in understanding the importance of the cultural differences, even if the OSW’s primary language differs from that of a patient’s.