Needs Assessment

We wanted a tool to survey our patients about the impact of cancer and treatment in terms of the toll it takes physically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually. Our plan was to use the information to help guide the design of our survivorship program. We were given a survey that the Education Office of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Rochester, MN, had developed to poll their patients on their educational needs. We changed the focus to elicit information on the needs and associated distress experienced by our survivors. We added a Likert-type scale, recategorized several items, and added seventeen others to produce a very useful needs assessment. We distributed 826 surveys, 307 of which were returned (37% response rate) over a 16 week period. The results confirmed for us the sometimes debilitating effects of cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation, and helped us focus our efforts. After obtaining our baseline data, we repurposed the tool to survey the needs and distress of patients completing treatment as they enter the survivorship phase. The survey also documents any educational topics of interest, such as estate planning, smoking cessation, living wills, etc. The information provided by patients is transferred to the care plan (Prescription for LIFE) to document a survivorship baseline and direct provision of services. On the care plan we list the reported needs, and separate out those reported to cause a distress rating of 3 or more. Here's a link to the needs survey (NOTE: Remember to sign up at Google docs and share your e-mail with us in order to access the documents referenced in this blog).