Understanding the activity of oncology nurse coordinators: An elaboration of a framework based on an abductive approach

Abstract

Care coordination is a major health system issue, in particular for cancer patients where a lack of coordination may impact quality of care, lived experiences, and care costs. Consequently, new roles facilitating Patient Pathway Coordination (PPC) have been created (nurse coordinators, NC). However, despite their importance, core PPC activities remain unclear. Practices are often heterogeneous and may be far removed from coordination roles, thus posing issues for implementation of PPC policies.To address this, we generated an analytical framework to investigate the Activity of PAtient PAthway Nurse Coordinators in Oncology (APANCO) from an organizational perspective. We adopted an abductive approach, characterized by two phases: the first involved a preliminary theoretical framework confronted with empirical data from two ethnographic fieldwork scenarios. In the second, we confronted the updated framework with data from a care coordination literature review.The final APANCO framework comprised three main categories at micro-level and three at meso-level. The first categories were used to analyze real NC activity at the micro-level and accounted for activities related (or not) to PPC. Meso-level categories considered organizational contexts that might have influenced NC work content.APANCO provided invaluable information on NCs activities. The framework may be used for clinical and managerial skills training and for standardizing job descriptions. These elements are key for decision-makers and managers who implement PPC programs.