Telephone first post-intervention follow-up for men who have had radical radiotherapy to the prostate: evaluation of a novel service delivery approach.

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of prostate cancer places pressure on services, leading to questions about how best to configure services, so as to maintain quality and best utilise the skills of the multi-disciplinary team. There have been positive evaluations of specialist nursing roles, nurse-led service provision and telephone consultations, leading us to consider whether telephone follow-up led by a specialist nurse might be an acceptable alternative to traditional follow-up in hospital-based out-patient clinics for patients receiving radical radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Thirty-six men were included in a pilot introduction of telephone follow-up, evaluated via a questionnaire survey. The evaluation explored patients' satisfaction with practical arrangements; satisfaction with the nurse; acceptability of telephone follow-up and acceptability of this being nurse-led. Patients reported high levels of satisfaction with practical arrangements. Thirty-five patients considered the nurse to be knowledgeable and found nurse-led care acceptable. Only one patient was unhappy with telephone follow-up, whilst 27 were "very happy". Only one patient felt that telephone follow-up was poorer than traditional follow-up, whilst 27 found it "as good" and three "better". Particular advantages were reported in terms of convenience and time savings. Telephone follow-up appears to have potential for this patient group and merits wider, research-based consideration.