Supportive care

Supportive care is a range of activities that help patients and their families to cope with cancer and its treatment. Its aim is to maximize the benefits of treatment, enabling the patient and family to live as well as possible, achieving optimal quality of life. Palliative care is a specialist element of supportive care, and the two terms supportive care and palliative care are frequently used together. Communication is an important part of cancer nursing care, and effective communication has numerous benefits for the patient and carers. Communication can be made more effective through communication skills training, and sometimes through the use of communication models like Sage & Thyme, which helps to identify and address emotional concerns. The context or setting of communication can have a big impact on the effectiveness of communication, particularly if there are distractions or a lack of support. Communication itself is a complex phenomenon, with verbal and non-verbal elements. Increasingly, distant and electronic forms of communication are being used in cancer care. In any form, communication will be enhanced if the nurse demonstrates warmth, empathy, genuine concern about the patient, and a non-judgemental attitude. Breaking bad news can be the most difficult form of communication. Approaching this in a structured way, e.g. using the SPIKES module, can help this process.