Theresa Wiseman

University of Southampton · Faculty of Health Sciences

Background Evidence for effectiveness of nurse-led interventions FOR cancer-related symptoms is of variable quality. This study aimed to identify, appraise and evaluate the nature and effectiveness of nurse-led interventions on symptoms for people with cancer. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis. Ten major databases were searched (2000 t...

Objective Colorectal cancer (CRC) is common in older adults, with more than 70% of diagnoses in people aged ≥65 years. Despite this, there is a knowledge gap regarding longer-term outcomes in this population. Here, we identify those older people most at risk of poor quality of life (QoL) and health status in the five years following CRC treatment....

Background: People with chronic illnesses such as cancer and cardiovascular disease are living longer and often require the support of critical care services. Current health care provision means patients may be discharged home once clinically stable despite still having high care demands including social, emotional, or physical needs. Families are...

Objectives The SafeSpace study codesigned and tested a virtual reality (VR) intervention, incorporating relaxation and compassionate mind training to determine acceptability/feasibility in an oncology setting and evaluate impact on physical/psychological well-being and quality of life. Design A two-phase study. Phase I determined key characteristi...

Current treatment for high‐grade non‐muscle invasive bladder cancer utilizes bacillus Calmette‐Guerin (BCG) installations into the bladder. Although effective, BCG toxicities often cause delay or instillation interruptions and this can consequently reduce the treatment efficacy. The importance of a patient questionnaire for identifying symptoms fol...

Purpose: Existing research indicates that physical activity (PA) is beneficial to men with prostate cancer (PCa). We examined the potential of a single-contact peer-support-based behavioural intervention to promote PA engagement in men treated for PCa. Methods: A mixed methods design was employed, comprising a two-arm pragmatic trial and semi-st...

Introduction Post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) is recommended to women at high risk of local recurrence. There is a paucity of published work on the experience of women who undergo deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap breast reconstruction in the context of requiring PMRT. The aim of the study was to explore and understand the patient...

Purpose Cancer nurses across Europe are being tasked with delivery of an increasing number of complex treatments and supportive care interventions as a result of ongoing advances in cancer research, and a rise in cancer incidence due to demographic changes. However, all health systems delivering cancer treatment innovations require access to an edu...

Background Older people are more likely to be living with cancer and multiple long-term conditions, but their needs, preferences for treatments, health priorities and lifestyle are often not identified or well-understood. There is a need to move towards a more comprehensive person-centred approach to care that focuses on the cumulative impact of a...

An experience-based co-design (EBCD) project at a UK cancer centre identified unmet staff and patient needs and prioritized four areas for physical activity (PA) service improvement: messaging about PA from healthcare professionals; timing of messaging; individualising information; and peer discussion.

Aims and objectives To describe pain manifestation in children with cancer at home and understand how parents assess this pain. Background Pain is experienced by children with cancer throughout their cancer journey. Short‐term, and into survivorship, pain has negative physical and psychological consequences. Changes in treatment location mean chil...

Objective Many older people with cancer live with multimorbidity. Little is understood about the cumulative impact of old age, cancer and multimorbidity on self‐management. This qualitative systematic review and synthesis aimed to identify what influences self‐management from the perspective of older adults living with cancer and multimorbidity. M...

Background: People with cancer experience a variety of symptoms as a result of their disease and the therapies involved in its management. Inadequate symptom management has implications for patient outcomes including functioning, psychological well-being, and quality of life (QoL). Attempts to reduce the incidence and severity of cancer symptoms h...

e24132 Background: The incidence of breast cancer is increasing in low- & middle- income countries (LMICs). Alongside attempts to reduce the disparity in cancer survival between high-income countries (HIC) & LMICs, it is important that survivorship is well understood and managed in an evidence based, resource and culturally sensitive manner. This p...

Children with cancer experience pain throughout their cancer trajectory. Pain has short- and long-term negative consequences for children physically and psychologically. Children with cancer spend more time at home with their families and less time in hospital. While this has benefits for quality of life, it shifts responsibility for pain managemen...

Background Clinical trials demonstrate that early referral to specialist palliative care improves patient outcomes in terms of quality of life and symptom control. This qualitative research study is part of a mixed methods evaluation of a novel early integrated Palliative Care (‘Triggers’) service for cancer patients. The Triggers service involves...

Background: The present study aimed to evaluate whether the implementation of a service improvement programme improved the occurrence of radiologically inserted gastrostomy (RIG) tube displacements, post-insertion. Methods: A retrospective observational study of cancer patients was conducted over a 2-year period divided into two time points. Eig...

Purpose The immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have resulted in subgroups of patients with metastatic melanoma achieving high-quality durable responses. Metastatic melanoma survivors are a new population in the era of cancer survivorship. The aim of this study was to evaluate metastatic melanoma survivors in terms of health-related quality of life...

Aim: To evaluate a new nurse consultant (NC) role, four specific objectives were set including examining the NC's contribution to the local implementation over a 30-month time period of the Recovery Package and assessing changes at a patient/professional/system level. Methods: An evaluative process was agreed using Donabedian's (2005) model for...

Objective: Existing research indicates that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (PA) alleviates treatment side-effects, and is associated with survival, in men with prostate cancer. We aimed to ascertain the state of research investigating barriers and facilitators to PA in men with prostate cancer, and synthesise existing qualitative research...

Objective The mental health challenges facing people who care for somebody with cancer are well documented. While many support interventions focus on provision of information or cognitive behavioural therapy, the literature suggests that psychosocial interventions could also be of value, especially given the low social support frequently reported b...

Objectives Bereavement is associated with negative affective, cognitive, behavioural and physiological responses. However, factors, such as coping, self-efficacy and self-esteem, can buffer negative effects of grief, and can be increased through mutual support interventions, such as shared leisure activities. This study used a non-randomised contro...

Background Global leading cancer organisations recommend that palliative care should be available to all patients, regardless of stage of disease. We established a novel Integrated Palliative Care service (‘Triggers’ Service) for lung cancer outpatients. New patients are screened by oncologists using a brief palliative care referral ‘Triggers’ tool...

Objective This study aimed to build an understanding of how the process of singing impacts on those who are affected by cancer, including patients, staff, carers and those who have been bereaved. Design A qualitative study, informed by a grounded theory approach. Setting and participants Patients with cancer, staff, carers and bereaved who had pa...

Introduction Physical activity is beneficial to men with prostate cancer, but there remain barriers to fulfilling the potential of National Health Service trusts to support men with prostate cancer to be physically active. This article describes protocols for two pilot studies, each conducted in a different setting, designed to assess the potential...

Background Advances in research and technology coupled with an increased cancer incidence and prevalence have resulted in significant expansion of cancer nurse role, in order to meet the growing demands and expectations of people affected by cancer (PABC). Cancer nurses are also tasked with delivering an increasing number of complex interventions...

Rapid response teams, such as critical care outreach teams, have prominent roles in managing end‐of‐life transitions in critical illness, often questioning appropriateness of treatment escalation. Clinical uncertainty presents clinicians with dilemmas in how and when to escalate or de‐escalate treatment. Aim To explore how critical care outreach t...

Background: Advances in research and technology coupled with an increased cancer incidence and prevalence have resulted in significant expansion of cancer nurse role, in order to meet the growing demands and expectations of people affected by cancer (PABC). Cancer nurses are also tasked with delivering an increasing number of complex interventions...

Experience-based co-design (EBCD) was used in the adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology setting to develop a transition pathway from hospital for young adults completing cancer treatment. The EBCD methodology provides the opportunity to embed patient experience and input into service design. In this project staff and AYAs identified unmet needs...

Nutritional screening, assessment and provision of advice for people living with and beyond cancer – a UK survey of clinicians - Volume 77 Issue OCE1 - B.M. Corfe, J.L. Murphy, F.P. Davey, L.J. Miller, M.A. Lloyd, S. Burden, F. Munir, T. Wiseman, M. Barrett, S.A. Wootton

To identify interventions aimed at helping parents manage their child's pain at home and to establish which aspects of interventions were effective. Integrative narrative review. MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, PsychINFO, PsychArticles, AMED, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Knowledge databases were searched in 2016. This narrative synthesis followed Centre for Rev...

Aim: To identify, appraise and synthesise the available evidence relating to the value and impact of cancer nursing on patient experience and outcomes. Background: There is a growing body of literature that recognises the importance and contribution of cancer nurses, however a comprehensive review examining how cancer nurses have an impact on ca...

Objectives To provide an overview of the evidence base on the effectiveness of workforce interventions for improving the outcomes for older people with cancer, as well as analysing key features of the workforce associated with those improvements. Design Systematic review. Methods Relevant databases were searched for primary research, published in...

INTRODUCTION People with advanced lung cancer often experience significant symptom burden and limited median survival time. There is little evidence to understand the patient’s perspective of their rehabilitation needs. OBJECTIVES To explore the rehabilitation needs of people with advanced lung cancer at a tertiary cancer centre. METHODS We conduc...

59Background: The London Cancer Alliance (LCA), created in 2011, is an integrated cancer system consisting of 14 NHS organisations serving a population of 5.7 million. The multi-professional Survivorship Pathway Group has 18 members including a service user. The purpose of the group is to provide expert clinical leadership for the development and i...

139Background: In some healthcare systems people with a diagnosis of early invasive breast cancer (BC) are discharged from hospital-based follow-up after completion of initial treatment. However there are limited data on the prevalence of specific ongoing physical and psychological needs in such people. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study i...

63Background: The London Cancer Alliance (LCA), created in 2011, is an integrated cancer system consisting of 14 NHS organisations serving a population of 5.7 million. The multi-professional Survivorship Pathway Group aims to improve the outcomes of adults living with and beyond cancer. Methods: A 14-15 point questionnaire was developed to identify...

Background: The London Cancer Alliance (LCA), created in 2011, is an integrated cancer system consisting of 14 NHS organisations serving a population of 5.7 million. The multi-professional Survivorship Pathway Group aims to improve the outcomes of adults living with and beyond cancer. Methods: A 14-15 point questionnaire was developed to identify g...

Background: Practitioners and researchers require an outcome measure that accurately identifies the range of common treatment-induced changes in sexual function and well-being experienced by women after cervical or endometrial cancer. This systematic review critically appraised the measurement properties and clinical utility of instruments validat...

Objective This study developed and piloted an educational intervention to support healthcare professionals (HCPs) to provide supportive care for families when a parent has cancer. Methods Programme development followed the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework, beginning with examination of theory and research, and consultation with experts. Th...

Background: The number of children worldwide requiring palliative care services is increasing due to advances in medical care and technology. The use of outcome measures is important to improve the quality and effectiveness of care. Aim: To systematically identify health-related quality-of-life outcome measures that could be used in paediatric p...

The two-week rule was introduced to address delays in cancer diagnosis. It requires patients with suspected cancer to be seen by a specialist within two weeks of GP referral and has implications for colorectal departments in terms of managing demands on service provision. In one NHS trust it was addressed by introducing a nurse-led telephone triage...

The majority of research ideas are proposed by clinicians or scientists and little is currently known about which areas of research patients feel are important. We performed a 4 week pilot patient survey at the Royal Marsden (a specialist cancer centre) to investigate patients' views on priorities for cancer research. A total of 780 patients comple...

Objective To shed light on experiences of patients with cancer in London National Health Service (NHS) trusts that may not be fully captured in national survey data, to inform improvement action plans by these trusts. Design Framework analysis of free-text data from 2012/2013 National Cancer Patient Experience Survey (NCPES) from the 2 London Integ...

Purpose The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing patient perception of success and benefit with self-management of breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL) and explore how patients decide whether their swollen limb has improved or deteriorated. Methods This qualitative study used a Grounded Theory approach. Twenty-one women in the...

The systematic review investigates whether, during preoperative assessments, nurse-delivered psychological interventions reduce anxiety levels preoperatively for patients undergoing elective surgery. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria for data extraction and in-depth critiquing. Of these, two were discarded due to lack of validity, while...

The aim of this service evaluation was to assess the value of music therapy for adult haemato-oncology inpatients and add data to the limited literature. A mixed methods approach was adopted, combining semi-structured interviews with pre- and post-session assessments of mood and anxiety using a happy/sad faces tool and a single visual analogue scal...

The aim of this study was to identify factors influencing patient perception of success and benefit with self-management of breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL) and explore how patients decide whether their swollen limb has improved or deteriorated. This qualitative study used a Grounded Theory approach. Twenty-one women in the BCRL self-manage...

In May 2013 a new Assisted Dying Bill was tabled in the House of Lords and is currently scheduled for a second reading in May 2014. The Bill was informed by the report of the Commission on Assisted Dying which itself was informed by evidence presented by invited experts.This study aims to explore how the experts presenting evidence to the Commissio...

The literature highlights the value of humour in health-care settings. Humour impacts on the physiological, psychosocial and cognitive well-being of a person. The diagnosis of cancer is extremely stressful, and treatments are difficult. Patients and nurses may use humour as a coping mechanism to contend with the stresses caused directly or indirect...

Exercise is considered to be a key aspect of lymphoedema treatment, although there is little evidence for the therapeutic effect of exercise in managing breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL). This small randomised controlled trial (RCT) was designed to determine the feasibility, prior to undertaking a larger RCT, of researching a daily home-base...

Purpose The aim of this paper was to briefly describe how the experience-based co-design (EBCD) approach was used to identify and implement improvements in the experiences of breast and lung cancer patients before (1) comparing the issues identified as shaping patient experiences in the different tumour groups and (2) exploring participants' reflec...

Patients' experiences have become central to assessing the performance of healthcare systems worldwide and are increasingly being used to inform quality improvement processes. This paper explores the relative value of surveys and detailed patient narratives in identifying priorities for improving breast cancer services as part of a quality improvem...

The aim of this paper was to briefly describe how the experience-based co-design (EBCD) approach was used to identify and implement improvements in the experiences of breast and lung cancer patients before (1) comparing the issues identified as shaping patient experiences in the different tumour groups and (2) exploring participants' reflections on...