Effectiveness of the Advocate Lutheran General Survivorship Center Programs

- If a patient agrees to participate, written consent will be obtained by the study
coordinators. Before the start of the first class at the Survivorship Center and after
the patients have signed the consent and HIPAA authorization forms, patients will fill
out three questionnaires. These include the standardized RAND 36 Health Survey, the
Distress Thermometer, and a pilot survey regarding expectations and satisfaction with
the Survivorship Program.

- The RAND-36 survey is a form that includes 36 questions and asks how patients feel their
illness has impacted them and their lifestyle with scoring as noted. Pre-coded numeric
values are recoded per the scoring key. They are scored so that a high score means
patient is in better health, 0 being the worst and 10 being the best. Scores represent
the percentage of total possible score achieved. Items in the same scale are averaged
together to create the 8 scale scores. Missing data is not taken into account. The RAND
36-Item Health Survey 1.0 has been validated in previous studies. According to the
VanderZee's study (1996), it was shown that the "internal consistency of the instrument
was high with high convergent validity."

- The Distress Thermometer (DT) tool asks patients 39 questions about practical, family,
emotional, religious, and physical problems in a "yes" or "no" format. A "yes" will
scored as 0 and a "no" will be scored as 1. Therefore, the lower the stress level, the
higher the score. The scores will be added for a total score. If the patient does show a
high level of distress with a score above 12 on the Distress Thermometer after the four
classes at the Survivorship Center, we will refer the patient back to his or her
physician for further guidance and possible counseling.

- The Expectation Survey consists of eight questions that ask patients about their
expectations for what they want/hope to get out of the Survivorship Program. Patients
will rank their answers from 1 - 5 based on how much they agree with the statement (1
being not at all, 5 being very much). The scores for each eight questions will then be
averaged.

- The Satisfaction Survey is also an eight question form that is much like the Expectation
Survey. Patients will also indicate how satisfied with they are with the classes/courses
at the Survivorship Center. The same scaling as above (1-5; 1 being not all agreeing
with the statement and 5 being very much) with be used. These two surveys will be pilot
tested for content relevance and readability level with current patients. Editions will
be made as necessary. There will also be an open ended question at the end to ask
patients what they would add to the classes to make them more beneficial.

- Participants will be asked to complete the Rand-36 SF, Distress Thermometer, and
Satisfaction Survey after attending at least four Survivorship classes in a two month
period.

- Inclusion Criteria

- Patients older than 18 years of age, any gender, and any race

- Newly diagnosed with any type of cancer and now seeing one of the oncologists at
the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital's Center for Advanced Care

- Patients new to the Survivorship Center or only visited once

- Must attend at least four classes in a two month period (any class, any time, any
day)

- Able to consent

- English speaking patient

- Exclusion Criteria

- Not a newly diagnosed cancer patient

- Patients under the age of 18

- Pregnant patients

- Prisoners

- Unable to consent

- Non - English speaking patient