ABSTRACT
As a nursing student back in the late 1970s, I thought I would not work in oncology because it hit too close to home; my mother, my grandmother, my grandfather, and a college friend had all had cancer. Working with patients with cancer would bring up too many memories and worries to which I would never subject myself.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/psychology , Neoplasms/nursing , Neoplasms/psychology , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Oncology Nursing/methods , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are at an unprecedented time in history. We practice at Monter Cancer Center in Lake Success, New York, which is part of Northwell Health, the largest health system in New York state, located in the initial epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/nursing , COVID-19/psychology , Humanism , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Oncology Nursing/ethics , Oncology Nursing/methods , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2 , United StatesABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection have made the assessment and triage of cancer patients extremely complicated. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation of a COVID-19 screening tool for oncology telephone triage. METHODS: An Ambulatory Oncology Clinical Nurse Educator and three faculty members worked on the development of an oncology specific triage tool based on the challenges that oncology nurses were having with the generic COVID triage tool. A thorough search of the published literature, as well as pertinent websites, verified that no screening tool for oncology patients was available. RESULTS: The screening tool met a number of essential criteria: (1) simple and easy to use, (2) included the most common signs and symptoms as knowledge of COVID-19 infection changed, (3) was congruent with the overall screening procedures of the medical center, (4) included questions about risk factors for and environmental exposures related to COVID-19, and (5) assessed patient's current cancer history and treatment status. Over a period of 3 weeks, the content and specific questions on the tool were modified based on information obtained from a variety of sources and feedback from the triage nurses. CONCLUSION: Within 1 month, the tool was developed and implemented in clinical practice. Oncology clinicians can modify this tool to triage patients as well as to screen patients in a variety of outpatient settings (e.g., chemotherapy infusion units, radiation therapy departments). The tool will require updates and modifications based on available resources and individual health care organizations' policies and procedures.