Welcome

This is a forum for people interested in creating a survivorship program for their cancer center. There is no question that survivorship services are sorely lacking in community cancer centers across the country. The need has been documented. The essential components have been proposed. But where do you start? How about here?

We've been working on putting a program together since we attended the City of Hope Survivorship Education for Quality Cancer Care in July 2007. Two years may seem like a long time to create a program. And it will seem even longer when we tell you we expect it to take another year to complete. But by July 1, 2010, we expect to have all of the pieces in place for a comprehensive model survivorship program, specifically geared to the resources of the community cancer center.

We've met several roadblocks along the way. The survivorship program development team consist of two RNs with full-time jobs. One of us (Mary Ann) is the clinical research coordinator, and one of us (Martha) is the education specialist. We're building the program in our spare time, and I suspect the same will be true for many program developers out there. Until survivorship enjoys undisputed acceptance as a legitmate, critical component of a cancer program, those of us who have been charged with program development will likely have to fight for program dollars and staffing. As such, many of us will work in virtual isolation in our attempts to create the structure for these much needed services. This forum is meant to tear down some of the obstacles, eliminate the isolation, and provide momentum to the movement.

We've developed a number of tools that we think will be useful to the program and to primary care practices caring for our survivors following completion of treatment. We'll post the tools as they're developed. We invite you to review them, use them, improve them, and let us know what works and what doesn't work. If you have tools you've developed, please post them as well. If we can all share in the effort, we can move more quickly to put our programs in place.

We ask that if you use our tools, you give us credit. If you post your tools, please document how others should credit your work.

We'd also like for you to tell us a little something about yourselves as you post. Describe your role in survivorship program development, your progress, plans, and problems encountered. The more we network and share, the more we'll learn from one another and move forward.