Over recent years, with mandates from the 2008 IOM Report and the Commission on Cancer, best practices have been rapidly evolving in our world of psychosocial care in oncology. We can all likely identify with the constant effort to implement screening protocols, improve our workflows, and involve interdisciplinary teams in recognizing and addressing psychosocial distress. This is never-ending work, and there are always new methods to test and improvements to make.
Radiation therapy settings can be ideal formats for testing our screening protocols and psychosocial interventions. Several factors play into this:
- Centralized setting. Patients who receive radiation therapy come to one place, so processes that involve multiple staff members can be implemented with a high degree of consistency.
- Interdisciplinary teamwork. Radiation therapy requires a strong interdisciplinary infrastructure, which includes physicians, nurses, medical physics, radiation therapists, other clinic staff and social workers. This infrastructure can be a great asset when testing or implementing a new process.
- Discreet episodes of care and frequent patient visits. Most radiation therapy patients come daily, with clear start and completion dates. They have a weekly on-treatment visit with the physician. The timing of psychosocial interventions can be aligned with radiation treatment planning, start of treatment, weekly physician visits, completion and follow-up.
- Variety of cancer diagnoses. Nearly 2/3 of all cancer patients will receive radiation therapy during their illness, so the radiation therapy center is a place where patients with many different diagnoses, at different stages of illness, can be found at any one time.
For those who are working primarily in radiation therapy settings, we encourage you to stand up at your cancer center—offer yourself and your setting as a go-to site for testing and implementing new distress screening protocols. Then use your experience and wisdom to inform and prepare the other areas in your institution or your community.
For those in leadership positions and/or sitting on your institution’s cancer committee, remember your radiation therapy clinic and its social worker are a great potential resource for quality improvement at your cancer center.
On another note, I have an important update to share for our SIG. Kristen Huber and I have been co-leaders of the Radiation Therapy SIG since 2013. Due to job changes and new responsibilities, it is time for us to hand over leadership to someone new. Our work together on this SIG has truly been a testament to the value of AOSW. When I started my current job in Radiation Oncology, I found my crosstown colleague Kristen through the AOSW directory. I called her up and found both wisdom and practical help for getting started in this setting. Over the years we have worked together on the SIG, toured each other’s sites, shared ideas and challenges, and even had the great opportunity to present together at the 2014 AOSW Annual Conference. Collaborating as SIG leaders is a great way to build professional connections and think in new ways about your work. If you have any inkling of jumping into SIG leadership, contact me today—you won’t regret it!
