Cancer care after surgery – the CONNECT study

Interventions: A centralised telephone-based ‘remote access’ cancer care coordination intervention, administered by a cancer nurse. After submitting a self-complete questionnaire at baseline (just prior to, or in the days following, surgery for colorectal cancer), participants will be randomised into the intervention or control group. Patients in the intervention group will receive the nursing care coordination and support service telephone calls from the cancer nurse at 3 days, 10 days, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after their discharge from hospital.
Primary outcome(s): Care coordination (as measured by a self-complete multiple-choice questionnaire we developed in the pilot study for this project)[At baseline, then 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge from hospital];Quality of life (as measured by the self-complete FACT-C questionnaire).[At baseline, then 1, 3 and 6 months after discharge from hospital]
Study Design: Purpose: Educational / counselling / training; Allocation: Randomised controlled trial; Masking: Blinded (masking used);Assignment: Parallel;Type of endpoint: Efficacy