By Meghan McGowan
Read time: 4 mins.
Breast cancer treatment has advanced significantly in recent decades, but navigating the realities of cancer can still be challenging. Through diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship, breast cancer patients lean on doctors, nurses, and providers that they trust. These clinician relationships can help shape a woman’s experience with breast cancer.
Dynarex physician care products help to support quality patient care and connection.
Screening and Early Detection
Finding breast cancer early is still one of the most important factors in a patient’s prognosis and treatment plan. Regular mammograms help detect cancer as soon as possible, but different sources recommend different screening frequencies, which can be confusing for patients to navigate.
Providers can help by assessing their patients’ breast cancer risk with questions like “Do you have any family history of breast cancer?” “Have you ever been told by a doctor that you have dense breasts?” “Do you or anyone in your family have an inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation associated with increased breast cancer risk?” These pre-screening interviews can identify which patients may need more intensive screening routines.
Treatment Navigation
When building trust with a new patient, it can be helpful for clinicians to make dedicated time to check in about subjects beyond treatment. What are the patient’s biggest wants, needs, and concerns? Do factors like transportation, work, caregiving, or finances pose a problem? Is there any part of the current treatment plan that they don’t fully understand? Do they know who to contact with questions between appointments?
By asking these questions, providers can help to open the floor for more direct and open communication and make the treatment process more manageable for their patients.
Side Effect Management
While most patients are familiar with the basics of what to expect during cancer treatment, there are many side effects that they may not know about or recognize. For clinicians, it can be helpful to walk patients through changes in their daily routine, rather than to run down a list of potential issues.
For example, a patient may report trouble sleeping, but more questions might reveal that the cause is not insomnia, but numbness and tingling from neuropathy that becomes more noticeable at bedtime. They may not describe themselves as having limited range of motion, but they may instead note that dressing and showering have become difficult or time-consuming.
It’s easy for patients to become overwhelmed by medical terminology and the physical reality of a body that no longer works the way it once did, but an exploratory approach can help providers to get to the bottom of patients’ side effects.
Ongoing Care
Life after cancer can bring a whole new world of tests and routines, plus different doctors from the cancer team that patients have gotten used to. For clinicians, it can be helpful at this stage to provide a look at what’s to come.
Patients may have many questions, including:
- Who will handle breast cancer screening now, and how often?
- Who will monitor their bone density and cardiac health, and why are these things important?
- What symptoms and issues can they manage at home? Which ones warrant further examination?
Just like the start of treatment, the transition into post-cancer life can be overpowering. Clinicians can help ease the transition by providing guidance as patients adjust to the new normal and new care routines.
Emotional Support
Breast cancer and its treatment can affect a patient’s mind nearly as much as their body. It’s common for patients to deal with fear, trauma, or even PTSD. Clinicians who work closely with patients have a unique opportunity to spot subtle warning signs of these and other problems.
Providers can make note of patients who frequently cancel or reschedule appointments, which may suggest fear or avoidance. Patients who report growing difficulties with work, relationships, or sleep or other everyday tasks may be struggling. Checking in with patients about the kind of support they receive from family and friends can help identify isolation. Referrals for mental health treatment can be vitally important for these patients.
More Than Medicine
Cancer treatment can be overwhelming and frightening, but clinicians stand in a position to make a world of difference. New approaches and targeted questions can transform a breast cancer provider’s practice and their patients’ experience with breast cancer diagnoses, treatment, and survival.
Explore Dynarex physician care products today.