Brennan Louise, Kennedy Megan, Grehan Sophie, Connolly Hayley, Sheill Grainne, Donohoe Claire L, Guinan Emer
Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Trinity St James's Cancer Institute, Dublin, Ireland.
J Cancer Surviv. 2025 Mar 27. doi: 10.1007/s11764-025-01785-6.
Screening, triage and referral systems can support patients to become more physically active and receive the right level of rehabilitation. This study aimed to understand patient experiences of attending a physiotherapy-led triage and referral clinic.
Adults who had been diagnosed with cancer during COVID-19 (March 2020 to May 2022) and had completed treatment were invited to attend a physiotherapy-led triage and referral clinic for assessment and triage to one of three needs-based pathways. Participant experiences were captured via semi-structured interviews at 12-weeks post triage assessment. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) was used to design interview guides and to guide deductive analysis.
Twenty-six participants (male n = 15, mean age 65 (11.6) years, mean 28.5 (6) months post-diagnosis) were interviewed. Key findings were substantial unmet needs and a sense of being unsupported (outer setting), an individual assessment with the specialist physiotherapist was gratefully received (outer setting), cancer rehabilitation services must improve (intervention characteristics), rehabilitation is a worthwhile investment for the health service (inner setting) and ability varies amongst participants to absorb community service costs (intervention characteristics).
Findings indicate high participant satisfaction with personalised assessment and referral to exercise services. The opportunity to meet with a specialist physiotherapist was highly valued by participants across all levels, addressed a significant unmet service need and led to improvements in multiple unmet physical and psychosocial needs.
Triage and referral systems have significant potential to support implementation of exercise and rehabilitation pathways into cancer care with high patient satisfaction.
gov Identifier: NCT05615285.
筛查、分诊和转诊系统可以帮助患者增加身体活动，并获得适当水平的康复治疗。本研究旨在了解患者在参加由物理治疗师主导的分诊和转诊诊所时的体验。
邀请在新冠疫情期间（2020年3月至2022年5月）被诊断患有癌症且已完成治疗的成年人参加由物理治疗师主导的分诊和转诊诊所，以进行评估并分诊到三种基于需求的途径之一。在分诊评估后12周，通过半结构化访谈收集参与者的体验。采用实施研究综合框架（CFIR）设计访谈指南并指导演绎分析。
对26名参与者（男性15名，平均年龄65（11.6）岁，诊断后平均28.5（6）个月）进行了访谈。主要发现包括大量未满足的需求和不被支持的感觉（外部环境），患者对与专科物理治疗师进行的个人评估表示感激（外部环境），癌症康复服务必须改进（干预特征），康复对卫生服务来说是一项值得的投资（内部环境），以及参与者承担社区服务费用的能力各不相同（干预特征）。
研究结果表明参与者对个性化评估和运动服务转诊满意度较高。与专科物理治疗师会面的机会受到各级参与者的高度重视，满足了一项重大的未满足服务需求，并改善了多种未满足的身体和心理社会需求。
分诊和转诊系统在支持将运动和康复途径纳入癌症护理方面具有巨大潜力，患者满意度较高。
美国国立医学图书馆标识符：NCT05615285。
