Develop and test new approaches to measuring the experiences of care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer, for use in hospitals or health centres.

Phase One involved qualitative research to determine the aspects of cancer care to measure and how to measure them, with a range of participants including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people diagnosed with cancer and carers, and health professionals. Phase Two involved the development of a new tool to measure the experiences of care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer. This was pilot tested with a small number of people in five sites, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer and health services staff, to assess acceptability of the tool and implementation aspects.
As part of her PhD candidature, Monica is now documenting and disseminating the process, including: an overview of the Australian context; comparison of existing mainstream tools with data collected in Phase One; development of the tool used in Phase Two; Phase Two findings; and implications of this research for health services. It is anticipated that this work will assist health services in their monitoring of the experiences of care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with cancer, so that services can use the data to improve the experiences of patients and families. In addition, the work will have application to conditions other than cancer.