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The Older Adult with Cancer in the Community Setting: Implementing a Frailty Measure

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Abstract
Background: Older adults with cancer are at risk of poor outcomes due to variances in biological fitness that contribute to frailty. Up to 50% of the population of older adults with cancer are frail. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network cites frailty screening as best practice. The problem addressed in this project was the absence of screening for frailty among older adult cancer patients in a rural community cancer center. Purpose: This study aimed to educate staff about frailty, implement a frailty screening for newly diagnosed older adults with cancer, and compare the referrals suggested by the SAOP tool to actual referrals. Methods: Cancer Center staff and affiliate providers participated in an education session about frailty with pre- and post-education evaluations. A frailty screening tool, the Senior Adult Oncology Program (SAOP) 3, was administered to ten newly diagnosed cancer patients to demonstrate how to integrate a frailty tool into this cancer center practice. Results: Staff and providers experienced a statistically significant increase in frailty screening knowledge (z = 3.86, p < .001). A 50% missed referral opportunity was discovered. Conclusions: The cancer center staff found the education valuable and endorsed using the SAOP3, a frailty screening tool. SAOP3 tool proved helpful in identifying areas to increase referrals and was successfully integrated into new patient visits. The next steps are identifying a facility nurse champion to perform frailty screening, integrating the screening into the electronic medical record (EMR), and presenting results as part of the treatment decision-making and referral process.
Type
Capstone Project
Date
2024-05
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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