Camp Fresh Horizons: an innovative wellness experience for patients with cancer.

Recognizing that cancer and its treatment can negatively affect many aspects of an individual's functioning, the Western New York Chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) designed an outdoor camping experience that allowed patients to refocus their lives, briefly, from disease and treatment to life and living. The camp, Camp Fresh Horizons, incorporated wellness-related activities designed to assist patients toward self-actualization. Twenty-four adults with cancer, 16 of their guests, and approximately 80 volunteers attended the weekend camp, which included indoor and outdoor recreational programs. Informal evaluations indicated that an experience based on wellness may offer improved emotional and physical functioning for people with cancer. This project proved to be a refreshing and different approach to patient- and family-centered support. The authors suggest that this wellness-centered project may be an important patient intervention useful to other ONS chapters.