The Oncology Nursing Society Board of Directors has approved the merger of the Home Care and Hospice SIGs. The new name will be the Home Care & Palliative Care (HOM) SIG.

Marie Bakitas had an article, Effects of a Palliative Care Intervention on Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Advanced Cancer: The Project ENABLE II Randomized Controlled Trial, published in JAMA. She is an ONS member and Advanced Nursing Research member.

Patient Education and Oral Antineoplastic Agents

Just a small note to welcome you to our Home Care and Palliative Care SIG.  Our SIG was formed from members of both the Home Care and Hospice SIGs in 2009. We welcome new ideas for projects, Congress and IOL Submissions, Newsletter articles and any updated information you wish to share with our members.  Your Leadership team members are

Cynthia Cramer, Coordinator
cyndi@realnurseed.com

Beth Mena, Ex-Officio
bethmena@charter.net

Peter Miller, Newsletter Editor 
Pal8pete@wildblue.net

Pat Frank, Web Administrator 
charlesfrank@comcast.net.

“Science of Compassion” End-of-Life and Palliative Care Summit Videocast and Media Coverage

NINR greatly appreciates the outstanding contributions of the nearly 1,000 scientists, researchers, palliative and end-of-life care health professionals, educators, policy analysts, members of professional organizations, and members of the public who attended and participated in the “The Science of Compassion: Future Directions in End-of-Life and Palliative Care” Summit on August 10-12.

Links to NIH videocasts of the Summit are online at www.ninr.nih.gov/scienceofcompassion.

The event was also well covered by the news media, including:

• Congressional Quarterly
• Hospitalist News
• Catholic News Service
• Oncology Times
• Nursing Spectrum

The Hospitalist News article linked above also includes a video on the Summit, with interviews of Dr. Jennifer Temel of Massachusetts General Hospital, parent advocate Dianne Gray, and Dr. J. Randall Curtis of the University of Seattle, Washington.

Dear All

APF members,FDA Briefing on Unapproved Opioids was held on April 9, 2009.An emergency stakeholder briefing was convened via conference call by the FDA to address concerns that have been raised by the pain and palliative care communities regarding warnings to nine companies to stop manufacturing and distributing 14 opioid analgesics within 60 days. APF participated in this briefing. A replay of the briefing will be available until April 15, 2009 at 11:59 PM EDT. To hear the replay, callers can dial 1-866-419-2678.Douglas Throckmorton, M.D., Deputy Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research stated that the FDA understands that patients dealing with terminal illness have unique needs that should have been taken into consideration. The FDA reported that they are taking immediate corrective action regarding the availability of the 20mg/ml morphine sulfate solution. They regretted that they failed to include representatives from hospice and palliative care organizations in deliberations over this particular issue and will improve their consultation process with key stakeholders in the future.

The FDA commented that they were not aware of the extent of disruption in patient care because of their ruling or that a critical shortage of some of these medications already exists. We would like to acknowledge them for their swift action in this case as they became aware of the impact this disruption was having on the community. In order to help remedy this; they would like to hear from providers if there are critical shortages in medications to help manage patients optimally.

The FDA has asked to be notified of drug shortages in your area as they arise. Contact FDA by emailing this information to drugshortages@fda.hhs.gov. All correspondence should include your professional information, name of the drug, your location, name of wholesaler (if available) and identify yourself as an APF member.To stay informed of drug shortages, visit the FDA website at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/shortages/Our voices can make a difference.If you are receiving this e-mail for the first time as a forward from a friend, please register here to continue to receive news and action items regarding pain management.

Sincerely,

  Remember that our SIG is able to nominate for both IOL and Congress Scholarship - anyone interested please contact Cyndi Cramer our Coordinator 

Our Coordinator Cyndi Cramer attended SIG Mentorship Weekend in Pittsburgh. 

 Peter Miller our newsletter editor wrote a chapter for the updated ONS publication "Nursing Management". 

Pat Frank received a grant from Penns Wood Chapter to attend 2011 Congress.

Post Congress our present Coordinator Beth Mena will take on the role of Ex-Offico.  We would like to thank her for the years she has served on the Leadership Team.  When she went into to office our membership was about 130, them we merged with Hospice SIG and we went over 600 and now with the no cost to join as many SIG's as you want we are well over 1,000 members.  She has done a great job - Thank you, Beth

Frank Brown donated his time to compile a new Home Care and Palliative Care Poster.  It was on display @ Congress.  Thank you, Frank for your time.

The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) is in the final stages of compiling its new standards manual: Cancer Program Standards 2012: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care, which is scheduled for release in July 2011. Diane M. Otte, RN, MS, OCN®, the ONS liaison to the CoC, reports that the new standards focus on quality, patient-centered care, addressing key issues such as psychological distress, patient navigation, palliative care, and survivorship, among others.

The standards continue to be open for public comment while the CoC pilot tests them in 50 different survey sites. To provide feedback, use the 2012 Cancer Program Standards wiki on the CoC website.

To learn more about the revised standards, plan to attend a session at the ONS Annual Congress in Boston, MA: “New Commission on Cancer Standards: Demonstrating Outcome Measurement Through Multidisciplinary Care,” scheduled for April 28 at 3:45 pm. Otte will be presenting with Luana Lamkin, RN, MPH, and Frederick Greene, MD.

Otte will also be available to discuss the standards at the Management and Program Development SIG meeting scheduled for Saturday, April 30, at 10:30 am.

The CoC will use several methods to educate and disseminate the standards, including a webcast series scheduled for April, YouTube videos dedicated to each of the 34 standards in August/September, and use of a new Best Practices Repository to be available in September. The guidelines will be effective beginning January 2012.

The CoC Accreditation Program is a voluntary commitment designed to encourage hospitals, treatment centers, and other facilities to provide quality care. Programs undergo evaluation and review every three years. According to its website, more than 1,480 CoC-accredited programs diagnose and treat 80% of newly diagnosed patients annually.

The CoC’s Cancer Program Standards are updated every 5-7 years to reflect changes in cancer care. The current standards were last completely revised in 2004.