Support by peers in the clinical team in oncology: Perception of the contribution of patient advisors to improve the patient experience.

Abstract

57 Background: Since 2018, three establishments in Quebec have introduced patient advisors (PA) in their healthcare team in order to improve cancer patients’ experience. These PA, who have had a cancer experience, meet patients undergoing radiotherapy treatments or in oncogenetics for breast cancer on the healthcare site. They conduct consultations to complete the offer of services by bringing emotional, informational, and educational support. Methods: A longitudinal study of multiple cases was completed from January to June 2020. After each accompaniment, the PA filled out a logbook to document the main themes covered and the accompanied patient fill out a survey to evaluate their experience one week after the intervention. A qualitative analysis of the logbook content and descriptive statistics were conducted. The REDCAP platform was used for monitoring the process of data collection and to administer the surveys online. Results: In total, 67 patients were accompanied by 4 PA. 71 logbooks were completed by the PA. The logbooks show that 70.3% of accompaniments took place right before radiotherapy and 63.6% following the results of the genetic test in oncogenetics. 50% of meetings took place in person in the establishment (in a space dedicated to the PA or not) and 45.8% were by phone. The meetings lasted approximately 37 minutes (min: 15 minutes and max: 90 minutes). The majority only met once (93.1 %). The most common themes discussed are: the role of the PA (94.1%), returning to day life (57.6%) and dealing with stress and anxiety (52.2%). 96% of PA felt that they did not encounter any difficulties during the accompaniment. For the accompanied women, the partnership was most beneficial for their experience with the illness (sharing experiences of side-effects, on the impact of the illness on every day life, with their social circle). 79% of patients found that the accompaniment met their needs. 90% of patients estimate that these meetings are complimentary to the healthcare professionals’ interventions. Finally, 89.5% of accompanied patients think that it would be very important to develop these types of meetings on a larger scale. Concerning the adaptation of spaces for the meetings, 26.3% are very satisfied and 26.3% are rather satisfied (probably an area for improvement). Conclusions: Overall, the partnerships seem to answer the needs of the accompanied patients and the PA can share their experience inside the clinical team.