Collaborative nursing practices supporting home-based living for people living with cancer and dementia: A modified grounded theory study.
- 1Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Nursing, Abeno, Osaka, Japan.
- 2Palliative Care Team, Department of Nursing, National Cancer Center Hospital, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
- 3Palliative Care Center, Kansai Medical University Hospital, Hirakata, Osaka, Japan.
Abstract
As the number of people living with cancer and dementia increases with population aging, effective collaboration between hospital-based and home-visiting nurses is essential to support meaningful home-based living. However, little is known about how nurses collaboratively manage the instability arising from the concurrent illness trajectories of cancer and dementia. This study aimed to elucidate the collaborative nursing practices that support home-based living for people living with cancer and dementia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 nurses working at cancer treatment hospitals or home-visiting nursing stations between May and December 2025. Data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. The core category was "Recalibrating life continuity while living with cancer and dementia," which represented a case-centered and continuous process underlying all categories. The six categories were: (1) Team building for high-quality geriatric oncology nursing; (2) Reconstructing the patient's intention; (3) Reorganizing the care system to sustain home-based living; (4) Anticipating interactions between cancer- and dementia-related symptoms and sharing management strategies; (5) Preventing or mitigating functional decline with disease progression; and (6) Caring for families experiencing dementia-related ambiguous loss and cancer-related losses. The findings highlight case-centered collaboration across care settings as a dynamic process for addressing the complex vulnerabilities associated with the coexistence of cancer and dementia. The proposed model conceptualizes how nurses adapt collaborative practices in response to changing patient and family needs while orienting care toward continuity of life at home.
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BibTeX
@article{takao2026collaborative,
title = {{Collaborative nursing practices supporting home-based living for people living with cancer and dementia: A modified grounded theory study.}},
author = {Ayumi Takao and Ikumi Iida and Hiroko Sakuma and Hiromi Sakuda},
journal = {Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.apjon.2026.101048},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42999929},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Collaborative nursing practices supporting home-based living for people living with cancer and dementia: A modified grounded theory study.
AU - Ayumi Takao
AU - Ikumi Iida
AU - Hiroko Sakuma
AU - Hiromi Sakuda
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/17
JO - Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing
DO - 10.1016/j.apjon.2026.101048
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42999929
AB - As the number of people living with cancer and dementia increases with population aging, effective collaboration between hospital-based and home-visiting nurses is essential to support meaningful home-based living. However, little is known about how nurses collaboratively manage the instability arising from the concurrent illness trajectories of cancer and dementia. This study aimed to elucidate the collaborative nursing practices that support home-based living for people living with cancer and dementia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 nurses working at cancer treatment hospitals or home-visiting nursing stations between May and December 2025. Data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. The core category was "Recalibrating life continuity while living with cancer and dementia," which represented a case-centered and continuous process underlying all categories. The six categories were: (1) Team building for high-quality geriatric oncology nursing; (2) Reconstructing the patient's intention; (3) Reorganizing the care system to sustain home-based living; (4) Anticipating interactions between cancer- and dementia-related symptoms and sharing management strategies; (5) Preventing or mitigating functional decline with disease progression; and (6) Caring for families experiencing dementia-related ambiguous loss and cancer-related losses. The findings highlight case-centered collaboration across care settings as a dynamic process for addressing the complex vulnerabilities associated with the coexistence of cancer and dementia. The proposed model conceptualizes how nurses adapt collaborative practices in response to changing patient and family needs while orienting care toward continuity of life at home.
SN - 2347-5625
SN - 2349-6673
ER -