Objectives

To describe the current level of utilization of informatics systems in hospice and palliative care and to discuss two projects that highlight the role of informatics applications for hospice informal caregivers.

Data sources

Published articles, web resources, clinical practice and ongoing research initiatives.

Conclusion

There are currently few informatics interventions designed specifically for palliative and hospice care. Challenges such as interoperability, user acceptance, privacy, the digital divide and allocation of resources all affect the diffusion of informatics tools in hospice.

Implications for nursing practice

Caregiver support through use of IT is feasible and may enhance hospice care.

Objectives

To provide an overview of research and practice related to patient-reported symptom and quality of life assessment integrated into clinical care.

Data sources

Literature retrieved through the PUBMED and CINAHL databases.

Conclusion

Assessing and incorporating patient preferences, engaging the patient in self-report and extending the interaction to the place and time favored by the patient are necessary to bring meaning to the term, patient-centered. There is beginning evidence that these approaches can make a difference, improving care quality.

Implications for nursing practice

Oncology nurses no longer need to be constrained by paper symptom checklists. Patient-reported symptom and quality of life information can be electronically collected and simultaneously made available for home and clinical use through the utilization of Web-based programs.

Objectives

Many technologies intended for patient use are never developed or evaluated with principles of user-centered design. In this review, we explore different approaches to assessing usability and acceptability, drawn from selected exemplar studies in the health sciences literature.

Data sources

Peer-reviewed research manuscripts were selected from Medline and other data sources accessible through pubmed.gov. We also present a framework for developing patient-centered technologies that we recently employed.

Conclusions

While there are studies utilizing principles of user-centered design, many more do not report formative usability testing results and may only report post-hoc satisfaction surveys. Consequently, adoption by user groups may be limited.

Implications for Nursing Practice

We encourage nurses in practice to look for and examine usability testing results prior to considering implementation of any patient-centered technology.

Objectives

To review the opportunities and possibilities for advancing oncology nursing competencies in genetic/genomics through the illustration of case scenarios in clinical care.

Data Sources

Literature; research reports.

Conclusions

Oncology nurses have the potential to influence whether or not cutting edge research discoveries are utilized at the bedside. Clinical integration of genetic/genomic information has the potential to optimize health outcomes and lengthen patient lives.

Implications for Nursing Practice

Oncology nurses need to include genetics/genomics in their practice in order to impact quality patient care today and for the future.