Toward structured peer support interventions in oncology: a qualitative insight into the experiences of gynaecological cancer survivors providing peer support

A Structured Peer Support Intervention for Patients With Hematologic Malignancies Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Peer Support Interventionists' Perspectives

BACKGROUND

Peer support is emerging as an important component of supportive care for patients with hematologic malignancies, but it has not been robustly implemented in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

OBJECTIVES

This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of peer support interventionists (participants) delivering a structured, 5-session, phone-delivered peer support intervention, the Supporting Transplant Experiences with Peer Program (STEPP) for patients undergoing HSCT.

METHODS

Adult patients who underwent allogeneic or autologous HSCT for the treatment of a hematologic malignancy within the past 3 years were eligible to volunteer in this study as trained STEPP interventionists. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted to explore participants' experiences, including their motivations for volunteering, reflections on intervention delivery and on the impact of peer support, and challenges faced while serving in this role. Interviews were deductively analyzed by 2 coders using framework-guided rapid analysis.

RESULTS

Twenty STEPP interventionists participated in this study. Participants were 65% men, with a median age of 63.5 years. Most (75%) had undergone allogeneic HSCT. Emerging themes from the qualitative interviews highlighted that participants were motivated to serve as interventionists by a sense of gratitude for their transplant care and a desire to share their transplant experiences with others. The impact of the STEPP intervention on interventionists included opportunities to process their transplant journey while also providing support to their peers. Interventionists reported a preference for free-flowing conversations, which were still guided by the structured manual. Challenges included terminating the interventionist-patient relationship at the conclusion of STEPP.

CONCLUSION

Peer support interventions for patients undergoing HSCT have the potential to enhance well-being and provide meaning for both patients preparing to undergo HSCT and HSCT survivors who serve as interventionists. Large-scale randomized clinical trials are needed to test the efficacy of peer support interventions for improving health-related outcomes among patients undergoing HSCT and HSCT survivors serving as interventionists for these interventions.

A Qualitative Exploration of Peer Supporters' Experiences of Undertaking a Co-Produced Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being Training Programme

INTRODUCTION

Peer supporters play a crucial role in mental health and support services, but their own mental health and emotional well-being are often neglected by themselves, and, frequently, their organisations. Here, we report findings from a qualitative interview study of peer supporters who completed a co-produced emotional well-being training programme.

METHOD

Ten semi-structured interviews with peer supporters working in the North East of England were conducted to explore their experiences of the training programme.

RESULTS

Thematic analysis of the data produced three overarching themes. In Theme 1, 'Increasing psychological preparedness and identifying self-care and coping strategies', we found that peer supporters improved their knowledge of how to manage sensitive topics such as aggression and suicide and felt more confident in their peer support roles resultantly. In Theme 2, 'It's good to know you're not alone', peer supporters discussed their experience of loneliness in their roles, and as a consequence realised their own need for peer support to help maintain their well-being. Theme 3, 'Toward the future: next steps', encapsulated peer supporters' willingness to continue their role development and to create a peer support network to continue to obtain mutual support.

CONCLUSION

Our findings emphasise the perceived emotional well-being benefits of a co-produced peer supporter training programme. Participants highlighted the need for co-produced training programmes that are (1) emotion-focussed, (2) provide access to other peer supporters and (3) provide future avenues for a peer supporter network of mutual support and professional development activities and training opportunities.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Individuals with lived experience of mental ill health and peer support were consulted in the development of interview questions and provided feedback on the finalised themes to ensure the analysis and interpretations were congruent with their experiences.

Peer Supporters' Experience of Supporting Cancer Patients: A Meta-synthesis

BACKGROUND

With the widespread use of peer support in the cancer field, more and more cancer survivors are becoming supporters. However, they may bear a huge psychological burden in the peer support project. There has been little effort to analyze supporters' experiences from a meta-perspective.

OBJECTIVE

The aims of this study were to review the literature on the experience of patients serving as peer supporters, integrate qualitative data to explore the experiences of supporters participating in peer support programs, and provide suggestions for future researchers.

INTERVENTIONS/METHODS

China Knowledge Network, Wanfang Database, China Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were searched. Titles, abstracts, and full texts were screened. Included articles (n = 10) underwent data extraction, the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool for qualitative researches (2016) quality evaluation, and thematic synthesis.

RESULTS

The literature ultimately included 10 studies from which 29 themes were distilled and grouped into 2 main categories: benefits and challenges of peer support for supporters.

CONCLUSIONS

Peer supporters will not only gain social support, growth, and recovery but also experience various challenges when providing peer support. Both supporters' and patients' experiences of participating in peer support programs deserve the attention of researchers. Researchers need to be rigorous in controlling the implementation of peer support programs to help supporters gain and overcome challenges.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Future researchers can use study findings to better develop peer support programs. More peer support projects are needed to explore a standardized peer support training guide.

Integrating accompanying patients into clinical oncology teams: limiting and facilitating factors

OBJECTIVES

Since 2018, four establishments in Quebec have been instrumental in implementing the PAROLE-Onco program, which introduced accompanying patients (APs) into healthcare teams to improve cancer patients' experience. APs are patient advisors who have acquired specific experiential knowledge related to living with cancer, using services, and interacting with healthcare professionals. They are therefore in a unique and reliable position to be able to provide emotional, informational, cognitive and navigational support to patients who are dealing with cancer. We aimed to explore APs' perspectives regarding the limiting and facilitating factors in terms of how they are integrated into the clinical oncology teams.

METHODS

A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews and focus groups was conducted with 20 APs at the beginning of their intervention (T1) and, two years later, during a second data collection (T2). Limiting and facilitating factors of APs' integration into clinical teams were analyzed in terms of governance, culture, resources and tools.

RESULTS

The limited factors raised by APs to be integrated into clinical teams include the following: confusion about the specific roles played by APs, lifting the egos of certain professionals who feel they are already doing what APs typically do, lack of identification of patient needs, absence of APs in project governance organizational boundaries, and team members' availability. Various communication challenges were also raised, resulting in the program being inadequately promoted among patients. Also mentioned as limiting factors were the lack of time, space and compensation. Creating opportunities for team members to meet with APs, building trust and teaching team members how APs' activities complement theirs were enhancing factors. Other facilitators include APs being involved in decision-making committees, being leaders in promoting the PAROLE-Onco program to patients and clinical team members and creating opportunities to communicate with team members to help enhance their work and provide feedback to improve patient services. Awareness of APs' added value for the team and patients is also a key facilitator. Regarding tools, offering accompanying services by telephone allows both patients and APs to benefit from the flexibility they need.

CONCLUSION

Over time, APs were able to identify optimal factors for successful implementation. Recommendations include APs and professionals working in co-construction on organization, leadership, resources and status factors. This could help catalyze a change in culture within health establishments and allow people dealing with cancer to benefit from the experiential knowledge of other patients within their clinical team.

Accompanying patients in clinical oncology teams: Reported activities and perceived effects

INTRODUCTION

Since 2018, four establishments in Quebec, Canada, have decided to implement the PAROLE-Onco programme, which introduced accompanying patients (APs) in healthcare teams to improve the experience of cancer patients. APs are patient advisors who have had a cancer treatment experience and who conduct consultations to complement the service offered by providing emotional, informational and educational support to patients undergoing treatments (e.g., radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery), mostly for breast cancer. We aimed to explore the evolution of APs' perspectives regarding their activities within the clinical oncology teams as well as the perceived effects of their intervention with patients, the clinical team and themselves.

METHODS

A qualitative study based on semistructured interviews and focus groups was conducted with APs at the beginning of their intervention (T1) and 2 years afterwards (T2). The themes discussed were APs' activities and the perceived effects of their interventions on themselves, on the patients and on the clinical team.

RESULTS

In total, 20 APs were interviewed. In T2, APs' activities shifted from listening and sharing experiences to empowering patients by helping them become partners in their care and felt generally more integrated into the clinical team. APs help patients feel understood and supported, alleviate stress and become partners in the care they receive. They also alleviate the clinical team's workload by offering a complementary service through emotional support, which, according to them, helps patients feel calmer and more prepared for their appointments with healthcare professionals. They communicate additional information about their patients' health journey, which makes the appointment more efficient for healthcare professionals. When APs accompany patients, they feel as if they can make a difference in patients' lives. Their activities are perceived by some as an opportunity to give back but also as a way of giving meaning to their own experience, in turn serving as a learning experience.

CONCLUSION

By mobilizing their experiential knowledge, APs provide emotional, informational, cognitive and navigational support, which allows patients to be more empowered in their care and which complements professionals' scientific knowledge, thereby helping to refine their sensitivity to the patients' experiences.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Two patient-researchers have contributed to the study design, the conduct of the study, the data analysis and interpretation, as well as in the preparation and writing of this manuscript.

Motivation to Consent and Adhere to the FORT Randomized Controlled Trial

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify the motivational factors that influence cancer survivors to participate and adhere to the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) FORT randomized controlled trial (RCT). Fifteen women diagnosed with breast and gynecological cancer who took part in the FORT RCT were interviewed about their experience to consent and adhere to the trial. The transcribed interviews were content analyzed within a relational autonomy framework. The analysis revealed that the participants’ motivation to consent and adhere to the FORT RCT was structured around thirteen subthemes grouped into four overarching themes: (1) Personal Influential Factors; (2) Societal Motivations; (3) Structural Influences; and (4) Gains in Emotional Support. The unique structures of the trial such as the group format, the friendships formed with other participants in their group and with the group leaders, and the right timing of the trial within their cancer survivorship trajectory all contributed to their motivation to consent and adhere to the FORT RCT. While their initial motivation to participate was mostly altruistic, it was their personal gains obtained over the course of the trial that contributed to their adherence. Potential gains in emotional and social support from psycho-oncology trials should be capitalized when approaching future participants as a mean to improve on motivations to consent and adhere.

Peer Mentors for People with Advanced Cancer: Lessons Learnt from Recruiting and Training Peer Mentors for a Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial

Peer mentors may offer distinctive forms of support to people with advanced cancer. Whilst peer mentor programmes are known, little is understood about recruiting and training peer mentors to support those with advanced cancer. The purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility of recruiting and training peer mentors for a novel peer mentor intervention to promote well-being in people with advanced cancer. Feasibility study testing proactive introduction to a trained peer mentor for 12 weeks in the context of a randomized controlled two-arm trial and nested qualitative process evaluation was used. Peer mentors have/had cancer, recruited via an open call. Two-day training included a new bespoke module on coping with cancer. Descriptive recruitment and training data were captured, supplemented by qualitative interviews, analysed thematically. Forty-eight people expressed interest, mostly female (69%), with breast cancer (32%), and recruited via social media (49%). Twelve people completed training, with attrition often due to availability or mentors' own health; many had advanced cancer themselves. They wanted to 'give something back', but also formed supportive bonds with fellow mentors. It is feasible to recruit and train people with lived experience of cancer to be peer mentors, but those with particular characteristics may predominate. Broad social media based recruitment may have merit in widening the pool of potential peer mentors.

"There's somebody like me": perspectives of a peer-to-peer gynecologic cancer mentorship program

Purpose

The Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance’s Woman to Woman (W2W) program is a peer mentorship program for women with gynecological cancer that was founded in 2004 and has expanded to 43 sites nationwide. An initial program survey was conducted in 2013, but no qualitative studies have investigated patient experiences with peer support programs for gynecologic cancer in the USA. This study examines the match experience at one program site. The aim of this qualitative study was to capture mentor and mentee experiences giving and receiving peer support, including how relationships were initiated and developed.

Methods

Hour-long, semi-structured interviews were conducted with both mentors and mentees. Interviews focused on the dynamics of the mentor–mentee relationship. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and open-coded. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to organize findings into themes.

Results

Sixteen participants (N = 16) were interviewed (seven mentors and nine mentees.) Three broad themes emerged: (i) pathways to the program; (ii) how connection occurred; and (iii) themes of compatibility. While program participants universally valued their match experience, frequency and mode of communication, as well as expectations of the match relationship were widely divergent among the program participants.

Conclusion

The W2W peer mentorship program is a valuable resource for patients with gynecologic cancer. Refining the wants and needs of mentees including mode of communication, frequency of communication, type of support desired, identifying topics of mutual interest, and introducing the concept of recurrence may improve the connectivity experienced by mentor–mentee dyads.

The patient advisor, an organizational resource as a lever for an enhanced oncology patient experience (PAROLE-onco): a longitudinal multiple case study protocol

BACKGROUND

Quebec is one of the Canadian provinces with the highest rates of cancer incidence and prevalence. A study by the Rossy Cancer Network (RCN) of McGill university assessed six aspects of the patient experience among cancer patients and found that emotional support is the aspect most lacking. To improve this support, trained patient advisors (PAs) can be included as full-fledged members of the healthcare team, given that PA can rely on their knowledge with experiencing the disease and from using health and social care services to accompany cancer patients, they could help to round out the health and social care services offer in oncology. However, the feasibility of integrating PAs in clinical oncology teams has not been studied. In this multisite study, we will explore how to integrate PAs in clinical oncology teams and, under what conditions this can be successfully done. We aim to better understand effects of this PA intervention on patients, on the PAs themselves, the health and social care team, the administrators, and on the organization of services and to identify associated ethical and legal issues.

METHODS/DESIGN

We will conduct six mixed methods longitudinal case studies. Qualitative data will be used to study the integration of the PAs into clinical oncology teams and to identify the factors that are facilitators and inhibitors of the process, the associated ethical and legal issues, and the challenges that the PAs experience. Quantitative data will be used to assess effects on patients, PAs and team members, if any, of the PA intervention. The results will be used to support oncology programs in the integration of PAs into their healthcare teams and to design a future randomized pragmatic trial to evaluate the impact of PAs as full-fledged members of clinical oncology teams on cancer patients' experience of emotional support throughout their care trajectory.

DISCUSSION

This study will be the first to integrate PAs as full-fledged members of the clinical oncology team and to assess possible clinical and organizational level effects. Given the unique role of PAs, this study will complement the body of research on peer support and patient navigation. An additional innovative aspect of this study will be consideration of the ethical and legal issues at stake and how to address them in the health care organizations.

Sexuality post gynaecological cancer treatment: a qualitative study with South African women

OBJECTIVES

This study investigated women's experiences of their sexuality post gynaecological cancer treatment. Using a holistic sexuality framework, the study explored how women felt their sexual functioning, sexual relationships and sexual identity had been affected by treatment.

DESIGN

The study was qualitative in nature and made use of an interpretive descriptive design. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

SETTING

Data collection took place at a follow-up clinic within the gynaeoncology unit at a public-sector tertiary hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

PARTICIPANTS

Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants, and the final sample consisted of 34 women aged 29-70 ([Formula: see text]=52). All women had received a gynaecological cancer diagnosis and had been treated with either surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of these. On average, the participants were between 12 and 30 months post treatment.

RESULTS

Women expressed how their sexual functioning post treatment was both nuanced and complex, how heteronormative gender expectations influenced their intimate relationships, and how they experienced a re-embodiment of their sexual subjectivity post treatment. Participants felt that more sexual functioning information from healthcare providers, as well as peer support groups, would assist them in navigating the sexuality changes they experienced.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study broaden conceptualisations of sexuality post treatment by detailing the ways that it is complex, nuanced, relational and ever shifting. More research is needed about how to incorporate holistic psychosexual support post treatment into the public healthcare system in South Africa.

Peer support opportunities across the cancer care continuum: a systematic scoping review of recent peer-reviewed literature

OBJECTIVE

Evidence suggests peer support (PS) is as an effective strategy for enhancing prevention and control of chronic and infectious diseases, including cancer. This systematic scoping review examines the range and variety of interventions on the use of PS across the cancer care continuum.

METHOD

We used a broad definition of PS to capture a wide-range of interventions and characterize the current status of the field. Literature searches were conducted using PubMed, SCOPUS, and CINAHL to identify relevant articles published from January 2011 to June 2016. We screened the title and abstracts of 2087 articles, followed by full-text screening of 420 articles, resulting in a final sample of 242 articles of which the most recent 100 articles were reviewed (published June 2014 to May 2016).

RESULTS

A number of the recent intervention studies focused on breast cancer (32%, breast cancer only) or multiple cancer sites (23%). Although the interventions spanned all phases of the cancer care continuum, only 2% targeted end-of-life care. Seventy-six percent focused on clinical outcomes (e.g., screening, treatment adherence) and 72% on reducing health disparities. Interventions were primarily phone-based (44%) or delivered in a clinic setting (44%). Only a few studies (22%) described the impact of providing PS on peer supporters.

CONCLUSION

PS appears to be a widely used approach to address needs across the cancer care continuum, with many opportunities to expand its reach.