Communicating With Oncology Nurses About Values From the Outset (CONVO): An Innovative Primary Palliative Care Intervention in English and Espanol
The purpose of this study is to translate and tailor for Latinx participants a program called Communicating with Oncology Nurses about Values from the Outset (CONVO). In CONVO, routine cancer care for each participant includes a discussion between the nurse and participant about the participant's health-related values.
• All participants will be adults (age ≥ 21) providing informed verbal consent. We seek a waiver of signed consent, which will allow use of virtual communication during the COVID-19 pandemic period.
• Patients will be eligible as key informants in the translation/transcreation process (Aim 1) if they are receiving medical oncology care for a solid tumor malignancy at RLC, SBH, or Jacobi and speak Spanish as their preferred language. In addition, English-speaking Latinx patients will be eligible to participate in interviews based on the back-translated (Spanish-to-English) version of the Guide
• We are focusing on patients with solid tumors rather than hematologic malignancies because 1) patients in the latter group may be receiving initial oncologic treatment in the hospital, whereas our study staff will be based at a distance from the hospital in the ambulatory clinics; 2) the trajectory, patient characteristics, and other aspects of hematologic malignancies tend to be different from solid tumor malignancies such that it would be more difficult to understand the overall impact of the intervention if patients with both types of malignancies w ere included.
• Spanish-speaking family/other informal caregivers (collectively referred to as family) who accompany participating patients to clinic will also be eligible to participate in interviews as part of the Aim 1 translation/transcreation process. These will be individual interviews, conducted separately for patient and family participants.
• Clinicians eligible for participation in the transcreation will be oncology physicians, nurses and other key clinical staff (e.g. social workers, advance practice providers, etc.) at RLC and other MSK sites who are Latinx and/or whose practice includes >20% Latinx patients.
• Site leaders at SBH, Jacobi, and RLC with administrative responsibility for medical oncology will be eligible as key informants in transcreation of CONVO.
• For the Aim 2 pilot trial, patients will be eligible if newly diagnosed with a solid tumor, initiating systemic chemotherapy at SBH or Jacobi, and English and/or Spanish speakers, as will their accompanying family speaking either language (if the patient opts to include a family member in the CONVO discussion).
• Nurses providing outpatient oncology care in chemotherapy areas at SBH or Jacobi will be eligible to receive training/lead values discussions in the pilot trial.