Program Description
The group counseling program consisted of six sessions meeting three per week for 1.5 hours. Each session was coordinated by a master social worker (MSW) and co-led by one of three nurses, 2 physicians, 2 chaplains, an occupational therapist and a registered dietician, serving as “content experts.” The co-leaders alternated every other week. The time format used in each session was one-third for patient and staff introductions, one-third for presentation and one-third for group discussion. Each group had about eight patients at varying stages of their cancer treatment, although the focus was on the recently diagnosed patient with advanced cancer.
The major concerns of cancer patients were selected and the content of each session is outlined in Table 1.