While nurses in this study demonstrated generally positive
attitude to survivorship care for haematological cancer patients,
this study has highlighted discrepancies between role perception,
practice, and the IOM recommendations that reflect potentially
important barriers to providing coordinated, comprehensive survivorship
care. In particular, areas of practice that were implemented
less frequently and were seen to be less important by
nurses, highlight what may be critical gaps if these aspects of care
are not adequately addressed by other members of the health care
team. Health service providers need to clearly delineate whose role
it is to provide various aspects of survivorship care, so that all aspects
of care are attended to (King et al., 2008). The IOM recommends
that comprehensive care plans be made available to
oncologists, PHC providers, nurses and patients to overcome these
challenges. It is recommended that such care plans should consist
of a schedule of follow-up appointments, strategies to manage the
consequences of cancer and its treatment, health promotion strategies,
referral pathways and a list of supportive services (Hewitt
et al., 2005; Lotfi-Jam et al., 2009). Based on the findings of this
study, nurses may be well placed to coordinate the development of