FPB Study Finds Distance Caregivers for Advanced Cancer Patients Have Special Needs
Dr. Polly Mazanec is lead investigator on NIH-funded study
Posted 8/9/11
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Polly M. Mazanec, |
Distance caregivers--those living 100 miles or more from a sick family member--are playing an increased role and creating new challenges in the care of advanced cancer patients.
"No longer are families living just around the corner from each other," says Polly M. Mazanec, PhD, ACNP, AOCN, FPCN. She is an assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and an advance practice oncology nurse at University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Seidman Cancer Center.
By 2012, the number of distance caregivers will reach an estimated 14 million people. Mazanec says they are often labeled "seagulls" and "pigeons" because of how they tend to fly in--from across the state, across the region, and even across the country--make a mess, and fly out.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, Mazanec's study is entitled, "Distance Caregiving a Parent with Advanced Cancer." In the Oncology Nursing Forum article, "Lack of Communication and Control: Experience of Distance Caregivers of Patients," she reports on the qualitative findings from the study, for which she is the lead investigator.
Collaborating on the article were FPB's Barbara Daly, the Oliva Perkins Professor in Oncology, and Maryjo Prince-Paul, assistant professor. Another investigator was Betty Rolling Ferrell, a research scientist at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California.
Source: Case Western Reserve University
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