Undergoing cancer treatment can be one of the toughest challenges of someone’s life. As cancer patients undergo their treatment journeys, seemingly small touches may have a huge impact on their medication adherence and health outcomes. When an experienced specialty pharmacy provides each patient with a nurse who helps manage their care, that relationship may help patients remain adherent to therapy and result in better outcomes for the patient.
A personalized, comprehensive patient management plan can help patients navigate side effects and other roadblocks more easily. Working with a nurse may help someone identify their own barriers to adherence, then find workable solutions that help them continue treatments.
Building a strong nurse-patient relationship to enhance cancer medication adherence
After a patient is referred to an experienced specialty pharmacy and consults with a pharmacist, they are paired with a nurse who communicates with them by phone throughout the treatment journey.
Initially, the nurse creates a personalized engagement plan that considers a patient’s clinical needs, therapy goals and unique risk factors. The plan is designed to help the nurse determine the root cause of a patient’s struggles to remain adherent.
During each call, the nurse asks about medication adherence. If the patient hasn’t followed their regimen, they discuss barriers. Together, nurse and patient create a tailored plan to overcome these challenges.
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By speaking regularly, the nurse and patients build a relationship based on trust, communication and empathy. Gradually, patients feel comfortable telling their nurses why they’re having difficulty staying adherent.
This is true for an experienced specialty pharmacy’s comprehensive patient management plan approach, which is designed to flex to meet each patient’s unique needs. Some patients who live alone may require more frequent check-ins, because patients without caregiver support tend to be less adherent and need more support in staying on track with their therapy. Other patients may need frequent phone calls for a short while if they begin experiencing anxiety or nausea and need guidance and support from their trusted nurse. Some nurses call patients weekly or monthly, while other patients may need daily calls until they are able to better manage their situation.
Nurses also provide ongoing therapy-related education, which increases the likelihood that patients will avoid medication errors. Patients can only recall about half of what their doctors recommend during office visits, so having an ongoing relationship with a nurse may help patients follow their doctors’ instructions.
How an experienced specialty pharmacy models nurse-patient relationships
When providing patients with personalized, comprehensive, risk-based care, an experienced specialty pharmacy may base its approach on the American Nursing Association nursing process followed in a hospital or clinic. This dynamic leads to high-quality patient care.
Nurses assess each patient during every phone interaction to determine their physical and psychological state on a given day. They then use the information to diagnose specific problems that may prevent adherence, such as pain, depression or nausea.
Once a problem has been identified, the nurse works with the patient to create measurable, achievable goals to improve symptoms gradually, working with a patient’s provider as needed. Next, the nurse and patient agree to execute the plan, which may include lifestyle changes or approved medication changes to manage nausea or other symptoms.
The nurse stays in touch while the patient works through each challenge, assessing whether additional adjustments to the plan are needed.
How nurse-patient relationships lead to better patient outcomes
Having the ability to connect with a nurse is a powerful tool. When a patient can report symptoms to a nurse, that increases the patient’s chances of staying adherent. Research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City has shown that when patients with metastatic cancer were able to report their symptoms to a nurse, they remained on chemotherapy for two additional months and lived five months longer than patients who didn’t report their symptoms.
Nurse-patient relationships that develop through an experienced specialty pharmacy may also help to keep patients out of the hospital. Between 33% and 69% of hospital admissions are related to medication nonadherence; many are avoidable. When a patient reports symptoms to their nurse, the nurse can help them improve the problem before it escalates. For example, nurse-patient communication may stave off nausea before someone experiences vomiting, then dehydration, which may require hospitalization.
By maintaining an ongoing relationship with patients throughout the treatment journey, nurses can pivot as needed when setbacks or new symptoms arise, even months into therapy. Having the ability to constantly reassess a patient’s health and care plan allows nurses to provide an appropriate level of support throughout treatment.
Establishing a strong nurse-patient relationship is a cost-effective way to help patients stay adherent, minimize health complications, reduce hospitalizations and improve patient quality of life.