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The ONS PodcastAuthor: Oncology Nursing Society
Where ONS Voices Talk Cancer Join oncology nurses on the Oncology Nursing Society's award-winning podcast as they sit down to discuss the topics important to nursing practice and treating patients with cancer. ISSN 2998-2308 Language: en Genres: Education, Health & Fitness, Medicine Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Episode 438: Inpatient Cancer Rehabilitation
Episode 438
Friday, 23 October, 2026
"The question isn't simply, 'does this patient need their chemo or other cancer treatment or do they need rehabilitation?' It's often about how we can safely provide both of these things that they need. Don't assume that rehab means that cancer treatment needs to stop. The oncology and the rehabilitation teams can work with each other, especially if that starts early, and determine what we can safely coordinate," Grace Campbell, PhD, MSW, CRRN, FARN, adjunct assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Pennsylvania, and immediate past president for the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, told Katie Hubbard, MSN, RN, OCN®, NPD-BC, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about inpatient cancer rehabilitation. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.75 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by October 23, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to inpatient rehabilitation and its role in the care of people with cancer. Episode Notes Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. ONS Podcast™ episodes: Episode 318: Early Mobility for Hospitalized Patients Episode 58: The Power of Cancer Rehabilitation ONS Voice article: Cancer Rehabilitation Serves a Critical Role in Patient Care Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles: Examining Contributors to Intent to Continue Exercising in Patients With Cancer in Rehabilitation Physical and Psychological Effects of a 12-Session Cancer Rehabilitation Exercise Program The Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Care Team and the Role of Physical Therapy in Survivor Exercise American Cancer Society: Cancer Rehabilitation Association of Rehabilitation Nurses resources: Cancer Rehabilitation and the Role of the Rehabilitation Nurse: A White Paper by the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses Learning Center Position Statement: Rehabilitation of People With Cancer (endorsed by ONS) Contemporary Issues in Cancer Rehabilitation article: A Guide to Inpatient Cancer Rehabilitation: Focusing on Patient Selection and Evidence-Based Outcomes ECOG: Performance Status Scale Inpatient Rehab Versus Skilled Nursing Comparison National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine book: Diagnosing and Treating Adult Cancers and Associated Impairments Rehabilitation Nursing Journal article: The Intersection of Rehabilitation and Palliative Care: Patients With Advanced Cancer in the Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode "When we talk about inpatient rehab, we're really talking about a level of rehabilitation designed for patients who have significant functional impairments, often in multiple areas of function, along with having medical, nursing, and rehabilitation needs that require an inpatient interdisciplinary environment for that sort of intensive, around-the-clock care. It's important to emphasize here that rehabilitation in general, and inpatient rehab in particular, is so much more than just getting stronger." TS 1:46 "Oncology nurses are in a great position here because as we know, nurses often see functional decline before anyone else does. These can be simple things, like she used to walk to the bathroom and now she needs a bedside commode; or he used to be able to transfer independently, and now it takes two people to get him out of bed. The patient is medically ready for discharge, but their spouse or partner can't physically get them into the house because of lower extremity muscle weakness and a full flight of steps to enter the home. Those are some really key rehab signals. Some other things to watch for include new difficulty with bathing or dressing, frequent falls or near falls, wheelchair dependance when they were not previously a wheelchair user, difficulty managing stairs, and new cognitive or safety concerns. These can be very subtle, but nurses can pick up on these as well as talk with the family or the patient's significant others." TS 12:41 "It's really important that we define success from the patient's perspective. What does the patient want to do? That is really the measure of success. Some patients just want to be able to walk to the bathroom by themselves. Some patients want to be able to get in and out of a car and even drive, if that's appropriate for them. Some patients may need to go back to work. How can we, in inpatient rehab, set them up to be able to go back to work?" TS 22:06 "Rather than saying to somebody, 'We're sending you to rehab because you're too sick to go home,' we can say something like, 'You've had a huge change in what you're able to do and we want to help you regain as much independence as possible while we continue your cancer care.' And while we haven't really talked about patients with advanced cancer who may be receiving palliative care, it's important to note that even these patients may benefit from a brief inpatient rehab admission ... particularly to provide in-depth evaluation for home equipment, and to provide family training on caring for this patient, permitting them to then go home if that's what they choose. You don't have to necessarily be able to get better to benefit from inpatient cancer rehab." TS 34:05 "Rehab should be considered as a part of cancer care, not something that simply happens when cancer treatment is over. It really should be an active part of the cancer care continuum. And the final thing that I would like to leave the audience with is a simple five question framework: What could the person do before cancer? What can they do now? What has changed and why? What do they need to be able to do? And what do they want to be able to do? If we ask those questions about every patient, we are much more likely to identify patients who could benefit from rehab and from any type of rehab—inpatient, outpatient, et cetera. I think this message for oncology nurses is particularly important. You don't have to be a rehabilitation expert, but you can be the person who recognizes that something has changed. You can ask the important questions. You can document what you see, and you could get the rehab team involved early." TS 46:49
