Capacity building of Public Health Nursing Officers on delivering psychosocial oncology care in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: capacity building; communication; intervention package; mindfulness therapy; oral cancer; psycho-oncology; public health nursing officers; rural and remote; Sri Lanka; training module EN capacity building communication intervention package mindfulness therapy oral cancer psycho-oncology public health nursing officers rural and remote Sri Lanka training module 138 142 5 01/28/21 20210101 NES 210101 BACKGROUND Distress denotes a multifactorial unpleasant experience of a psychological, social, spiritual and/or physical nature that may interfere negatively on cancer patients.1 Psychological distress, the most common manifestation of this composite phenomenon is recognized as the sixth vital sign of cancer diagnosis.2 It could have a negative impact on seeking health care services, treatment compliance, survival and quality of life of cancer patients.3 Therefore, psychosocial-oncological care comprises of screening for psychological distress among cancer patients and offering psycho-social-oncological support for those with high levels of distress has become an important service need. The brief commentary describes the development of, and training in delivering outreach psychosocial oncology care for oral cancer patients by PHNOs in Sri Lanka. [Extracted from the article]