Lessons learned from a social worker's approach to advance care planning discussions with Chinese-immigrant oncology outpatients.

PURPOSE

To examine Chinese-immigrant cancer patients' openness to advance care planning (ACP) in an outpatient oncology setting.

DESIGN

Retrospective review of social work assessment data.

SAMPLE

150 Chinese-immigrant patient charts were reviewed (55% Cantonese, 45% Mandarin).

METHODS

Data were summarized descriptively and with logistic regression analyses.

FINDINGS

Sixteen percent of patients had completed ACP prior to meeting with the oncology social worker (OSW). Twenty percent of patients agreed to complete a health care proxy (HCP) after receiving culturally-tailored education in their language of origin from the OSW, while 75% remained open to ongoing consideration of ACP and HCP completion.

CONCLUSIONS

This study illuminates how Chinese immigrants engage in ACP discussions in an oncology setting.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOSOCIAL PROVIDER

OSWs can play an integral role in advocating, educating, and intervening with this population and can assist the interdisciplinary team in understanding the importance of the cultural differences, even if the OSW's primary language differs from that of a patient's.