Improving cancer survivorship in the deaf community: an evaluation of a bespoke cancer information event
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Improving cancer survivorship in the deaf community: an evaluation of a bespoke cancer information event

Maria Leadbeater Macmillan cancer information and support service lead, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Chesterfield, England
Dawn Warrington Macmillan support service lead, Macmillan Information and Support Centre, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Chesterfield, England
Sheree Hall Macmillan lead cancer nurse, Macmillan Information Centre, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Chesterfield, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To understand the challenges experienced by the deaf community when accessing healthcare

  • To learn about a project that improved the experiences of deaf people when accessing information on cancer survivorship

  • To develop your own ideas for improving the experiences of deaf people using your service

Deafness is the third most common disability in the world but is often misunderstood by healthcare professionals, and therefore deaf people’s experience of accessing healthcare can be suboptimal. Many deaf people use British Sign Language (BSL) as their main language, and as such experience challenges when trying to access healthcare and communicate with healthcare professionals. Nurses at the Macmillan Information and Support Centre at Chesterfield Royal Hospital identified that deaf patients with cancer lacked appropriate information and support despite seeing many healthcare professionals. To address this, a cancer information event for deaf patients was developed based on the specific needs of this group, supported by BSL interpreters. This article describes the event and discusses the evaluation, which suggests that the event improved the group members’ understanding of information about cancer and general health.

Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2021.e1774

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

m.leadbeater@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Leadbeater M, Warrington D, Hall S (2021) Improving cancer survivorship in the deaf community: an evaluation of a bespoke cancer information event. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2021.e1774

Published online: 24 May 2021

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