| Statistically, one out of six men, over their life-time, will cope with the diagnosis of prostate cancer (Demark-Wahnefried, Aziz, Rowland, & Pinto, 2005). Cancer survivor rates over the past three decades have grown to 81% due to technology advances (Demark-Wahnefried, Aziz, Rowland, & Pinto, 2005; National Cancer Board, 2009). The hallmark report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2006) emphasizes the long term chronic effects of cancer treatment on survivors and recommends the need for health counseling, specific to the survivorship cancer stage. Cancer survivorship care to meet the needs of patients for this stage of care in the cancer trajectory continues to be an exception in the United States. This cancer healthcare gap for survivorship care and counseling provides an opportunity for Advanced Practice Nurses to utilize their advanced knowledge and skills in providing primary, secondary and tertiary survivorship cancer care. By implementing disease-specific evidence-based survivorship counseling, specific to the prostate cancer population, the quality of care will improve for patients emotional, physical and social well being.;Keywords: cancer survivorship, survivorship education, prostate cancer, cancer chronic care, patient satisfaction. |
