| This content is derived from the "Charting Your Course Seminars: A Whole Person Approach To Living With Cancer", provided by Norris Cotton Cancer Center. |
|
Charting Your Course is a series of four seminars intended to offer patients and caregivers information and techniques for living with cancer. The Charting Your Course program was developed at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center as workshops, led jointly by a palliative care nurse and a hospice worker. Discussion topics and activities from the pilot workshops are collated here in a self-paced program.
If you would like to offer the Charting Your Course seminars as workshops, free of charge, to a group of patients at your hospital or clinic, you may do so. We provide a facilitator's guide for the course material with suggestions on presentation, activities, and discussion topics. Responses to the pilot workshops have been positive; participants said they felt informed and encouraged.
The workshops should take approximately two hours each. Patients are invited to bring a family member or other caregiver or support person with them. Both patients and caregivers can benefit from the series. We suggest offering the program in a month-long series, one session per week. The program is most useful if patients participate as soon as possible after diagnosis.
To present the Charting Your Course material in a group format, print out a copy of the seminars for each participant. We provide a facilitator's guide for each session, with discussion points and directions for activities. For each seminar, we provide an evaluation form for participants to fill out.
The workshops can be enhanced by inviting specialists to make presentations on some of the topics. We suggest that an oncology nurse be available to answer questions on symptom management during the first session and that a nutritionist specializing in cancer care attend the second session. For the third session, you will need to obtain copies of Advance Directive health care forms that are legally sufficient in your state. If these are not readily available through your hospital or clinic, you can download forms from Partnership for Caring [ www.partnershipforcaring.org ] (formerly known as Choice In Dying).
The activities can churn up strong emotions. Strive to provide a supportive environment, and keep plenty of tissues on hand.
Leaders of the pilot workshops used flip charts heavily, to list objectives and discussion points, and to collate group lists.
Seminar I - Facilitator's Guide
Seminar II - Facilitator's Guide
Seminar III - Facilitator's Guide
Seminar IV - Facilitator's Guide
[ Go Up ]
| This content is derived from the "Charting Your Course Seminars: A Whole Person Approach To Living With Cancer", provided by Norris Cotton Cancer Center. |
|
|