Sabrina Mikan on the Importance of Measuring Sleep

Sabrina Mikan, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, of Texas Oncology discusses the importance of measuring the sleep quality of patients and caregivers.

To comply with the Oncology Care Model (OCM), providers must measure the distress of their patients with cancer. Research evaluating distress measurement tools found the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) to be the easiest and most objective tool for measuring distress. Mikan explains that, through work with Dr. Patricia Carter, she understands the integral part that sleep plays in a patient’s distress. Therefore, Mikan and Carter set out to evaluate patients’ sleep through the ESAS to discover what patients are currently saying about their sleep. From there, they hope to create information on sleep to give to patients.