Lung Cancer Nurse Model: a Phase II Study

Lung cancer patients experience significant physical symptoms, psychological distress and have many supportive care needs that impact on quality of life. Implementing the role of a Lung Cancer Nurse (LCN) is a response to meet the needs of patients and caregivers. Primary aim is to assess the feasibility of a LCN intervention and feasibility to collect longitudinal patient self-assessment questionnaires at the Thoracic Cancer Centre of the University Hospital of Lausanne. Secondary aims are: i) to describe self-reported changes in self-efficacy, symptoms and unmet supportive care needs across three time points during the first line therapy and ii) to explore professional acceptability of the new LCN model evaluating the perceptions of barriers and facilitators of the model by the LCN and the other multidisciplinary members of the comprehensive lung cancer care team. An exact single-stage (no interim analysis) design will be applied to determine feasibility for further studies to be undertaken. Secondary outcomes will be analyzed descriptively at each data collection (Baseline, Time1, Time2) time point and professional acceptability will be explored by focus groups with selected members of the interdisciplinary team.