Poster Presentation 2025 National Cancer Survivorship Conference

Preference for cancer nurses as care providers of people with cancer: A systematic review of discrete choice experiments  (#162)

Elise Button 1 , Carla Thamm 1 , Megan Crichton 2 , Rachel Milte 1 , Catherine Paterson 1 3 , Juliana Christina 1 , Murray Turner 4 , Raymond J Chan 1
  1. Caring Futures Institute , Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  2. Cancer and Palliative Care Outcomes Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. Central Adelaide Health Network, Adelaide, South Australia , Australia
  4. Faculty of Health, Canberra University , Canberra, Australian Capital Territory , Australia

Background: There is growing demand for expanded service provision in cancer care, including nurse-led and integrated models-of-care.  Limited evidence has focused on the preferences of cancer care providers, willingness to pay (WTP), and understanding provider trade-offs decisions among people with cancer. 

Aims: To report the results of a comprehensive search and synthesis of discrete choice experiments in scenarios involving cancer nurses, with a focus on: 1) preferred care provider; and 2) relative importance of attributes of care provision, including WTP for people with cancer. 

Methods:  A search was conducted across: CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EconLit Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and Google Scholar for discrete choice experiments published between January 2014 to June 2024. Data were extracted and appraised by two authors. Results were narratively synthesized.  

Conclusions: Of 471 studies screened, 9 were included, published in Australia (n=3), UK/Scotland (n=3), and China (n=3) including people with breast (n=3), gastric (n=3), prostate (n=1), or mixed cancers (n=2). In the five studies of scenarios of follow-up care (i.e., survivorship/surveillance), cancer medical specialists were the preferred care provider, followed by cancer nurses, and then GPs. In supportive care scenarios (i.e., diet and exercise advice, anxiety and depression screening), cancer nurses were the preferred care provider, followed by allied health professionals, then cancer medical specialists. The WTP estimates for cancer medical specialists in scenarios of follow-up care ranged from $US226.15 to $US-39.39 and were higher compared to other care providers. Cancer nurses had higher WTP estimates for supportive care services compared to other care providers, ranging from $US137.52 and $US119.35.  The attributes of care ranked most important by people with cancer were care provider, mode of care, thoroughness of information, frequency of care, and location of care.  To effectively partner with consumers, patient preferences should be considered in future service re-design and cancer care interventions.