Patient Collaboration
Regional Cancer Centres (RCC) have a basic mission to strengthen the patient's position in cancer care. In addition to research and proven medical knowledge, consideration of patients' and relatives' experiences and opinions is a necessary prerequisite for the development of person-centered and safe care. It is therefore important that patients and relatives are included as co-creators of future cancer care.
Patient and relatives collaboration
According to the national cancer strategy, the RCC must involve patient and relatives representatives in the design and development of cancer care. Patient and next-of-kin representatives are therefore included in large parts of RCC's work, for example in regional patient and next-of-kin councils, process work and national care programs.
There is a national working group for the coordination of patient and relatives cooperation, which is tasked with making use of the experiences and knowledge of patients and relatives in order to develop and improve health care. The focus is to collaborate, monitor the area of patient collaboration and establish contacts, both nationally and internationally.
To strengthen the opportunities for patients and relatives to act as representatives, the RCC produces information that can be used both regionally and nationally. It is information about the RCC, mainly at national level, as well as a description of the mission as a representative and policy. As the country's six regional cancer centers are partly different, the material is supplemented with healthcare regional information.
RCC's national patient and next of kin council is an independent council and consists of two representatives from the respective healthcare regional patient and next of kin council. The council must monitor the patient and relatives perspective in cancer care and the work carried out within the RCC at national level. RCC's national working groups and other external national groupings can turn to the national patient and relatives council for contact and cooperation with patients and relatives.
Contact nurse
According to the national cancer strategy from 2009, all patients with cancer must be offered a permanent contact person at the cancer care clinic. The aim is to improve information and communication between the patient and the care unit, to create accessibility, continuity and security and to strengthen the patient's opportunities to participate in their own care.
The contact nurse has overall responsibility for the patient and relatives throughout the entire care chain. The assignment includes being particularly accessible, informing about upcoming steps in care and treatment, providing support in normal crisis reactions and mediating contacts with other professional groups.
Active handovers
During the patient's time in cancer care, there are often handovers between different care providers. To create a cohesive care chain for the patient and next of kin, all handovers must be active.
An active handover means that the person responsible for the patient makes contact, verbally and/or in writing, with the next instance. An active handover may include information about:
- the patient's needs and wishes
- diseases and treatment
- follow-up of nursing and cancer rehabilitation measures.