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Novel Approaches in Cancer Study

Integrating Mental Health Screening During Infusion Visits in a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic: Partnering with Nursing to Improve Access

Kelsey Largen1* and Katerina Levy2

1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, USA

22Department of Clinical Psychology, Long Island University CW Post, USA

*Corresponding author:Kelsey Largen, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, 2200 North Druid Hills Rd NE, Atlanta, GA, 30329, USA

Submission: November 07, 2025;Published: December 01, 2025

DOI: 10.31031/NACS.2025.08.000691

ISSN:2637-773X
Volume8 Issue 4

Abstract

Background: Evidence-based screening helps to identify psychosocial factors important to treatment and facilitates referrals to psychosocial services. Screening is effective in a pediatric oncology setting, however, there are several barriers to implementation, including lack of time and resources.
Methods: Nurses administered mental health screenings to hematology/oncology patients ages 11-25 during routine infusion visits every three months. Data was collected from patients and nurses in addition to screening results.
Results: Out of 480 screenings conducted, 68 were positive on the PHQ-4, identifying 37 unique patients. These 37 patients then completed follow-up measures, yielding 18 patients with elevated scores on either the PHQ-9 (n= 12) or the GAD-7 (n=14); 8 patients had elevated scores on both measures. Results indicated that both patients and nurses felt that asking about mental health during medical visits was important, but nurses wanted more education on administering these measures.
Discussion: Partnering with nurses to administer mental health screenings can help to overcome barriers to implementation and identify children and adolescents at risk for anxiety and depression in a pediatric hematology/oncology clinic.

Keywords:Adolescents; Anxiety; Depression; Oncology; Hematology

Statement Summary

This quality improvement initiative found that partnering with nurses to administer mental health questionnaires helps to overcome barriers to implementation and identifies hematology/oncology patients that are exhibiting symptoms of anxiety and depression. This partnership allows for mental health screening to be conducted with a trusted healthcare professional that can seamlessly integrate the screening into their routine care.

Standards of care in pediatric hematology/oncology recommend regular screening of psychosocial risk in patients due to the adverse psychological effects that childhood cancer has on patients and families [1]. Evidence-based psychosocial screening helps to identify psychosocial factors important to treatment and facilitates referrals to psychosocial services [2-4] to prevent treatment gaps for patients [5]. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of screening in a pediatric oncology setting [6-8]. Research has contributed to the development of fifteen standards of psychosocial care for children diagnosed with cancer and their families such as receiving early, routine, and systematic assessment of psychosocial healthcare needs, creating access for patients to reach psychosocial providers (i.e., psychology and psychiatry) and providing developmentally appropriate information to patients prior to invasive medical procedures or treatment [1].

Progress on implementation of these psychosocial care standards in oncology clinics has been slow despite the wellestablished need for psychosocial care in this clinical setting, as a survey in 2016 indicated that only 25% of pediatric oncology programs in the United States utilize ongoing psychosocial assessment of youth with cancer [9]. A previous survey conducted in 2012 revealed less than 10% of oncology clinics were utilizing evidence-based mental health screenings with youth in their clinics [10]. Documented barriers to screening implementation include lack of time and resources [6,11], determining appropriate times to screen, and providing training in psychosocial risk [12].

In order to address these barriers, psychosocial screening programs should consider methods of seamlessly incorporating screening into a medical visit. Targeting patients at infusion visits allows for more time to complete the screening, as patients are often in clinic for several hours. Infusion nurses are uniquely qualified to administer screening measures, based on the relationship that they develop with patients and families. Due to the nature of their work, oncology nurses often are attuned to patients’ emotions and develop ways to determine whether their patient is distressed, such as looking for verbal or behavioral cues [13]. Using interdisciplinary models of care in which an overlap between skills exists between nurses and psychosocial providers enhances patient care and improves health-related quality of life [14].

In the current project, we aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of screening during infusion visits as part of patients’ routine care. We used an interdisciplinary model of care to guide our intervention which delineates the discipline-specific competencies and scopes of practice while highlighting comprehensive patientcentered interdisciplinary team activities [14] and has been shown to increase resource identification for adolescent and young adult oncology patients [15]. Patients attending infusion visits with a diagnosis of cancer or a blood disorder were screened every three months by their infusion nurse to assess their mental health. We aimed to identify patients with mental health concerns not currently in therapy who might benefit from referral to the psychology service.

Materials and Methods

Screening was conducted as part of standard clinical care. The screening process was reviewed via a program development/quality improvement framework and thus did not require IRB review or oversight. Quality improvement procedures were evaluated using an ethical framework and were deemed to be suitable. The Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQuIRE) guidelines were followed in reporting the results of this paper.

Design and sample

The project was conducted at a pediatric hematology/oncology clinic within a large children’s hospital in an urban location in the northeastern part of the country. Nursing staff administered the Patient Health Questionnaire- 4 (PHQ-4) during routine infusion visits for children with cancer and blood disorders ages 11 and up every three months. The PHQ-4 is a four-item questionnaire composed of the first two questions of the Patient Health Questionairre-9 (PHQ-9), assessing symptoms of depression, and the first two questions of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), assessing symptoms of anxiety [16]. The PHQ-4 was chosen because it is brief and easy to administer. It has been used to screen for mental health symptoms in adolescents with cancer [17], has good validity and reliability [18] and good sensitivity and specificity for detecting major depression (Richardson et al., 2010) and generalized anxiety disorder [19]. Electronic medical recordbased alerts notified staff when a patient was due for screening.

Patients completed paper forms manually, which were then scored by nursing staff and manually entered into the patient’s electronic medical record. Patients with a score >3 on either the first two questions assessing depressive symptoms or the last two questions assessing symptoms of anxiety were considered positive. Patients with a positive PHQ-4 screen were administered the PHQ-9 or GAD-7, depending on the area of concern. The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were scored by nursing staff. A patient was considered to have a positive screen on follow up measures if the total score was >10 on either measure or question nine was endorsed on the PHQ-9 indicating symptoms of suicidal ideation or self-harm. This workflow was seamlessly integrated into Epic’s medical record system by utilizing the “Best Practice Advisories (BPAs)” feature, which provided automated alerts to guide nurses through the screening process, ensuring timely follow-up actions and consistent application of evidence-based care protocols.

All patients screening positive on either of these measures received evaluation from the clinic-embedded pediatric psychologist within one week of the screen. All patients endorsing suicidal ideation or self-harm received an evaluation and safety assessment on the same day of the screen. All patients that had a positive screen on the PHQ-4 received handouts on coping with anxiety and depression. Non-verbal patients or those with developmental disabilities severely limiting cognition were excluded from the screening. Please see Figure 1 for a flow of the mental health screening workflow.

Figure 1:Mental health screening protocol.


Quality improvement initiative

The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method for process improvement was used to inform the planning and improvement strategies for this project. Prior to implementing the protocol, the clinic psychologist met with nursing leadership to discuss a partnership and develop a protocol for the screening. The protocol was then reviewed with nursing staff and implemented during infusion visits. Three months into the screening, the clinic psychologist met with nursing staff to discuss any barriers to implementation. Based on feedback, quality improvement investigators brainstormed ideas to improve workflow, including assisting with printing out measures during busy clinic times and administering the questionnaire during psychology visits for established patients. After these changes were implemented, quality improvement investigators gathered data from patients and nurses and shared feedback with nursing leadership to discuss a plan for further mental health education. See Figure 2 for a description of information regarding the steps of this quality improvement process.

Figure 2:Mental health screening quality improvement map.


Program Evaluation Questionnaires

Nursing feedback questionnaire

A six-item questionnaire was developed to assess nurses’ attitudes towards administering the PHQ-4 screening measure during infusion visits. The questionnaire was administered to nurses during a nursing meeting for feedback and consideration of any programmatic changes that might be necessary.

Patient feedback questionnaire

A ten-item questionnaire was developed to assess patient attitudes towards completing the PHQ-4 screening measure during infusion visits. The questionnaire was administered to patients who had completed a PHQ-4 screening during an infusion appointment.

Results

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© 2025. Kelsey Largen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.

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