Objective: Research evidence supports the unique role of clinical nurse co-ordinators in improving prostate cancer (PC) care overseas, however, many PC patients in Australia remain without this service. This is the first study evaluating the effectiveness of a clearly defined Prostate Cancer Clinical Nurse Co-ordinator (PC-CNC) intervention in Australia, with the aim to improve the experience of care and psychosocial wellbeing of Australian men diagnosed with PC and their families. The trained PC-CNC provided information, decision-making and psychosocial support, management strategies and referral to patients (and their families) for 6 months following diagnosis.

Methods: Of the 96 newly diagnosed PC patients recruited, 56 received usual care (Pre-intervention group) and 40 received a PC-CNC protocolised intervention (Intervention group). Validated self-report measures assessed: care co-ordination (CCCQ), unmet information and support needs (SCNS), psychological status (HADS), quality of life (FACT) and sexual/urinary/bowel/hormonal functioning (EPIC) at pre-treatment (T1), and at 3-month (T2) and 6-month (T3) follow-ups.

Results: The majority of intervention participants (92%) viewed the PC-CNC as ‘very’ or ‘quite a bit’ beneficial in their cancer journey.From T1 to T2, the intervention group reported significantly better care co-ordination compared to pre-intervention controls, including greater improvements in care navigation (p=0.010) and more positive perceptions of overall care co-ordination (p=0.022). No effect of the PC-CNC intervention was detected on: levels of anxiety and depression, quality of life, and sexual/bowel/hormonal function.

Conclusions: Current findings provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of the PC-CNC role in the care coordination of newly diagnosed PC patients and their families in Australia. 

This study was conducted in collaboration with the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI - the urology network) and was funded by the Cancer Institute NSW.