Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey 2015/16
Results from the 2015/16 Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey. The survey covers the full care journey that a cancer patient experiences, from thinking that something might be wrong with them to the support they received after their acute-care treatm
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Clinical Nurse Specialist
Questions in this section ask patients if they were given the name of a Clinical Nurse Specialist ( CNS) to support them through their treatment, and if so, their views on both the ease of contacting their CNS and how frequently they got clear answers from them on important questions.
It has been previously demonstrated across other Cancer Patient Experience Surveys that access to a CNS can have a significant positive influence on patients' experiences [5] .
The majority of patients (84%) had been given the name of a CNS who would support them through their treatment (Table 17).
Table 17: Provision of Clinical Nurse Specialist
| Were you given the name of a Clinical Nurse Specialist who would support you through your treatment? |
n |
% |
|---|---|---|
| Yes |
3,800 |
84% |
| No |
725 |
16% |
| Total |
4,525 |
100% |
Patients with breast (95%) and colorectal / lower gastrointestinal tumours (90%) were statistically more likely than the all-cancer average to have been given the name of a CNS. Patients with urological tumours (58%) and haematological (70%) were less likely (Figure 16).
Figure 16: % given the name of Clinical Nurse Specialist, by tumour group
Ease of contacting Clinical Nurse Specialist
Ninety per cent of patients found it 'very' or 'quite easy' to contact their CNS, with only four per cent finding it 'quite' or 'very' difficult (Table 18).
Differences between tumour groups in how easy they found it to contact their CNS were not significant overall.
Table 18: Ease of contacting Clinical Nurse Specialist
| How easy or difficult has it been for you to contact your Clinical Nurse Specialist? |
n |
% |
|---|---|---|
| Very easy |
2,143 |
64% |
| Quite easy |
887 |
26% |
| Neither easy nor difficult |
186 |
6% |
| Quite difficult |
105 |
3% |
| Very difficult |
36 |
1% |
| Total |
3,357 |
100% |
Questions for Clinical Nurse Specialist
Fifteen per cent of patients reported that they had not asked any questions of their CNS, meaning that the large majority (85%) of patients did approach their CNS with questions.
Of those that did have questions for their CNS, 90% responded that they got answers that they could understand 'all or most of the time'. Only two per cent 'rarely or never' got answers they could understand (Table 19).
Table 19: Questions for Clinical Nurse Specialist
| When you have had important questions to ask your Clinical Nurse Specialist, how often have you got answers you could understand? |
n |
% |
|---|---|---|
| All or most of the time |
2,839 |
90% |
| Some of the time |
268 |
8% |
| Rarely or never |
61 |
2% |
| Total |
3,168 |
100% |
There were differences in how positively patients from different tumour groups responded to this question. Breast tumour patients (86%) were statistically less likely to respond that they got answers they could understand to their important questions.
In contrast, patients with colorectal / lower gastrointestinal, (94%), haematological (94%), and head and neck tumours (93%) were all more likely than the all-cancer average to have responded positively (Figure 17).
Figure 17: % receiving answers from Clinical Nurse Specialist they could understand, by tumour group
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