conStruction of a tool to assess the difficulties encountered and the associated need for assistance in patients with canceR

Context:

In the palliative situation of a serious illness, the care approach consists of providing the patient with the best possible quality of life and relieving his or her "physical, psychic, social and spiritual" symptoms. It is therefore more a question of "health" than "care". It seeks the best possible "well-being" for the patient, as part of a personalized, individualized and progressive approach. In a literature review identifying the expectations and support needs of patients in the advanced stages of cancer, 12 areas were identified: the physical and symptomatic dimension, activities of daily living, the psycho-emotional dimension, the patient's place in and information from the healthcare system, patient support within this system, the social dimension, communication, the financial and spiritual dimensions, decision-making autonomy, sexuality and nutrition. According to the literature, apart from spirituality, these domains are similar in patients in the initial phase of cancer, when hope of cure or remission is still possible. Similarly, these domains are common to oncology and hematology patients.

However, identifying a need for help without additional information in relation to the identified problem seems insufficient in the overall approach to a patient in the advanced stages of cancer. A given problem can be assessed by different approaches: (i) the existence and intensity of a problem, (ii) the importance attributed by the patient to this problem, (iii) the burden for the patient represented by this problem and (iv) the need for help perceived by the patient with regard to this problem, vis-à-vis a professional or another actor in his or her care.

The patient's need for help can be assessed by different approaches

These approaches seem complementary but, to date, there is no clinical tool that can combine these different approaches in the dynamic assessment of cancer patients' expectations.

Primary objective:

To create a clinical tool assessing, for a given theme, the importance, intensity, distress and need for help associated with a difficulty encountered by a cancer patient, and to ensure the face and content validities of the newly created tool.