Oral Presentation 2025 Joint Meeting of the COSA ASM and IPOS Congress

Using an implementation science framework to map facilitators and barriers to improving the delivery of survivorship care information to rural cancer survivors (126039)

Lizzy A Johnston 1 2 , Xanthia E Bourdaniotis 1 3 , Susannah K Ayre 1 2 , Hayley Fung 1 4 , Nicole Craig 1 , Fiona Crawford-Williams 4 , Rebecca J Bergin 5 6 7 , Jon D Emery 6 8 , Raymond J Chan 4 , Belinda C Goodwin 1 9 10
  1. Cancer Council Queensland, Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia
  2. School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia
  3. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
  4. Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
  5. Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
  6. Department of General Practice and Primary Care, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  7. Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  8. Centre for Cancer Research, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  9. Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, QLD, Australia
  10. School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Purpose: People living outside of city centres (hereafter ‘rural’) report substantial gaps in the survivorship care information received when transitioning from treatment in a city centre to primary care in their local community. This study engaged with healthcare professionals caring for rural cancer survivors to identify facilitators and barriers to improving survivorship care information delivery. Sample and setting: 31 healthcare professionals, including cancer specialists, general practitioners, nurses, care coordinators, and allied health practitioners. Participants were sampled for representativeness across oncology disciplines, roles, public and private settings, and geographical locations in Queensland. Procedures: Semi-structured interviews regarding current practices for delivering survivorship care information to rural cancer survivors at the transition of care, perspectives on how this information should be delivered, and factors that may affect implementation of a new system, method, or guideline for delivering survivorship care information were extracted and categorised as either a facilitator or barrier to improving information delivery. Barriers and facilitators were then mapped to the domains and constructs of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to identify the settings and contexts in which they occur. Results: Facilitators included the evidence base and relative advantage of improving survivorship care information delivery to rural cancer survivors, indicating that healthcare professionals perceive this initiative as important and valuable. This was further supported by mission alignment and tension for change, indicating that improving information delivery to rural cancer survivors is within participants’ organisations’ goals and current practices are not sustainable. Barriers included local conditions, policies and laws, and financing, including challenges accessing support services in rural settings and limited funding for post-treatment care. Conclusions and clinical implications: Guiding principles and suggested actions were developed from study findings, including strategies for minimising burden on healthcare teams, formalising transitional practices, streamlining referral pathways, partnering with community services, and including family carers.