Employment support at a cancer counseling support center through multidisciplinary collaboration

Abstract

The aim of this study is to elucidate the actual collaboration of various professions to provide employment support at a cancer counseling support center and to examine the role of nurses in providing such support. A nurse and a certified labor and social security attorney, both of whom had practical experience in employment-related counseling at the cancer counseling support center of Hospital A, were interviewed by utilizing a semi-structured approach. KH Coder® was used for analysis, including co-occurrence analysis. From the attorney’s narrative, seven subgraphs related to multidisciplinary collaboration in employment support at the cancer counseling support center were extracted. From the nurse’s narrative, eight subgraphs were extracted, covering information provision on staff collaboration in employment support and the structure of employment support at the cancer counseling support center. The role of nurses in employment support involves the intentional provision of information from an early stage on topics related to employment and economic aspects, grounded in support for patients’ physical well-being, while actively introducing cancer patients to suitable occupations.