Advanced Cancer Patients: Hospital Social Workers Experiences And Observations

The working title of my proposed research project is: Communication with Advanced Cancer Patients: Hospital Social Workers’ Experiences and Observations

My proposed research topic is to understand hospital social workers’ stories of supporting patients with advanced cancer. This study will explore social workers’ experiences of speaking with patients about their needs, concerns, hopes and fears. It will also explore social workers’ involvement in, and observations of, other professionals’ conversation with patients about diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and palliative care. Advanced cancer can change the trajectory of one’s life and having conversations around it is never easy. Although every hospital and ward are different, social workers

When I was 11, my dad was diagnosed with a rare type of sarcoma cancer. Although I was not present during the diagnosis, he had written about his cancer journey in a journal through which I was able to read after his passing. In his journal was the following excerpt: “Thursday June 2nd, 2011. 4:00pm - Dr.X called home and broke the news to Ancy [wife] that I had cancer - soft tissue sarcoma. 6:30pm - Ancy told me the news crying. 7:00pm - Dr.X called me and discussed the results and recommended to see an oncologist right away. I held up okay thinking a surgery, radiation, and chemo should take care of this. I didn’t break down, I guess it really didn't sink in”. “Saturday June 4th - … The thought of Ancy becoming a widow and Josh without a father is really killing me. Several thoughts crossed my mind but finally I put aside all those thoughts to calm my mind”. In this case, I wonder: Why was there no social worker involved? Was the social worker informed of this case? How could the involvement of a social worker better support my dad through his thoughts of the diagnosis?

In the third year of my Bachelor of Social Work, my placement was at Juravinski Hospital on the oncology ward (C3), the same floor that my dad was in and out of during his cancer journey. During my placement, I was part of a few advanced cancer conversations that covered diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, and palliative care in which my role was

My recruitment strategy starts by creating a letter of information that will be distributed to Juravinski Hospital social workers. Those who wish to participate in my study can contact me directly through the information provided in the letter of information. My source of data will be 3 Juravinski Hospital social workers who engage in advanced cancer conversations regularly from which they can speak from. 3 interviews are what is feasible for the timeframe of my thesis and it provides enough data to analyze as I am focusing on only 1 hospital. My data will be collected by conducting one-on-one interviews with the participants using a narrative inquiry approach. These interviews will be 60-90 minutes in length and will be conducted over Zoom. I will then transcribe each interview with the support of the Zoom transcription feature and analyze my data using my proposed