A Curriculum for Primary Care Health Professionals Involved with Late Treatment or Post Treatment Cancer Survivors
With progress in treating cancer comes a new and unique challenge for primary care health professionals—ensuring the long-term health of the 18 million cancer survivors in the United States. While medical schools and residency programs have traditionally focused on diagnosis, treatment and, more recently prevention of cancer, curricula focusing on cancer survivorship after treatment are rare. Surveys from the National Cancer Institute of primary care physicians in practice reveal that less than 10 percent are aware of the most common late effects of cancer and its treatments.
To facilitate the critical competencies that should be part of the routine care of cancer survivors, and to address this gap in medical education, Carol A Rosenberg, MD, has created the Living in the Future Cancer Survivorship Course, a framework for the dissemination of the science of survivorship. The curriculum provides emerging health professionals, as well as those who are in long standing practice, with a foundation of attitude, knowledge and skills related to survivorship care.
Objectives
On completion of the course participants should be able to:
- Identify the reasons why cancer survivorship is a necessary clinical core competency for primary care health professionals to achieve
- Anticipate the needs of cancer survivors
- Identify the problems cancer survivors may face
- Address these needs and issues in a dynamic primary care partnership with cancer survivors and their families