A patient charter on chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) has been developed following a series of discussions between a selection of specialist cancer nurses; including patient advocates from UK charities.

The patient charter contains a number of consensus statements aimed at informing patients about CINV management and empowering them to speak to their healthcare professionals about their needs.

The results of these discussions are published in ecancermedicalscience, the journal of the European Institute of Oncology and the OECI.

The Expert Panel of nurses was assembled because there was a feeling among patient advocates and oncology nurses that CINV care was not up to the guidelines established by groups such as the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (in association with the European Society of Medical Oncology), the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Patients often experience delayed CINV at home, rather than in a clinic or a hospital, so healthcare professionals may underestimate the effects of CINV. Therefore, the Expert Panel sought to develop a patient charter in the hopes of informing the patient about their own CINV care.

The patient charter is intended as a supplement to the guidelines set out by the societies and groups mentioned above.

Through a series of discussions, the Expert Panel compiled ten consensus statements to support CINV management. The statements cover areas including monitoring of symptoms between appointments, maintaining a dialogue on the use of other CINV remedies and empowering patients to talk to their healthcare professionals.

It is hoped that the patient charter will be distributed among hospitals and clinics and will made available to all patients to improve patient care.

Reference:
 
A Young, P Dielenseger, P Fernandez Ortega, D Fernandez Perez, P Jones, E Lennan, E O'Donovan, S Sharp, A Whiteford and L Wiles (2013) Helping patients discuss CINV management: development of a Patient Charter ecancer 7 296
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2013.296