Umeå universitets logga

Purpose: Support after cancer treatment can improve health-related quality of life for cancer survivors. Contact nurses play a key role in patient care following cancer treatment. The contact nurse is responsible for providing support, encouraging patient participation in care, and assessing and managing individual needs throughout the cancer trajectory. This study aims to explore contact nurses' perceptions of how organisational conditions influence patient care provision after cancer treatment.

Methods: A descriptive qualitative study design was used. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 12 contact nurses from seven hospitals in northern Sweden, between February 2022 and January 2024. Data was analysed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: Contact nurses perceive that they are: working around resource limitations, navigating unclear responsibilities, pursuing inter-professional collaboration and envisioning integrative follow-up. The results highlight the challenges that contact nurses face when maneuvering between the formal and informal boundaries they perceived within the organisation. They struggled to work according to their job descriptions and felt hindered by existing structures.

Conclusion: Contact nurses experienced that organisational prerequisites hindered their ability to fulfil their role when providing care to patients after cancer treatment. They strived to adopt a person-centred approach and improve patient support, but felt hindered by unclear structures within the organisation. By addressing these challenges, organisational conditions for contact nurses may be enhanced to improve patient care after cancer treatment.Keywords: Cancer care navigator; Cancer survivors; Contact nurse; Curative treatment; Experience; Nursing; Oncology care coordinator; Organisation; Qualitative research; Support.