Precision Supportive Care Individualizes Patient Experience

“Precision supportive care” should be used to make the experience of each patient with cancer specific to their needs, shared survivorship expert Michelle Kirschner, MSN, RN, ACNP, APRN-BC.

Kirschner explained that each patient will have unique needs when it comes to supportive care, and therefore supportive care models that are “one size fits all” may not always work in the oncology setting. For instance, she gave the example that an adolescent or young adult (AYA) patient may have a greater need for social support to relate to peers going through similar experiences, while, on the other hand, an older adult in a rural community may have a greater need for online care options.

Kirschner, director of program development at the Cancer Survivorship and Supportive Care Professionals Network, shared that meeting the needs of patients throughout their respective journeys with cancer—and through every stage and relapse—allows for more comprehensive care.

Transcript

One of the blind spots that I’m seeing is this lack of what I call “precision supportive care.” Where we’re trying to create models of support, it’s 1 option for everyone. We’re missing the point that everyone and the way they want to engage with supportive care is so different.

You can look at an AYA, who’s younger and might want support more in a large social group, whereas somebody who’s in a rural environment maybe wants to go on a computer and use telehealth or virtual options.

One of the things that we need to think about is, “How can we create multiple different ways that we can support patients so each patient can find the type of support they want?” That’s important.

The other part of this is the idea of cancer as a journey and understanding that it’s not just “curative treatment, and then you’re done.” You have individuals that have relapsed. What’s their experience like? They’re individuals who are living with metastatic cancer as a chronic illness. What is their experience? Cancer isn’t just “one and done.” It’s there. How do we support all those different types of journeys? It’s very fundamental.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.