Cancer Care Partners

This 35-minute film was developed from interviews with 22 care partners of people with cancer, including bereaved care partners. The film is designed to be useful for all those caring for, with, and about care partners, including fellow care partners and families, clinicians and administrators, and quality improvement specialists.

A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Stony Brook University School of Nursing, and University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing conducted interviews with care partners at a large academic medical center in the Northeast. This cancer center draws from several neighboring states and urban, suburban, and rural areas. Despite attempts at maximum variation sampling and success interviewing people with diverse identities and experiences, most of the participants in this film identified as White.

This project was funded by a Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation AERO grant, with additional contributions of funding from Penn Nursing, Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, the Mary J Finnin Grant for Nursing Innovation in Oncology from the Foundation of New York State Nurses Center for Nursing, and the Stuart and Sherry Greene Foundation. 

Please contact the UW-Madison Qualitative and Health Experiences Research lab qherlab@fammed.wisc.edu to learn more about this project or share your experiences watching this film.

Full film

The Relationship with the Person with Cancer

Why I am a Care Partner​

What Care Partners Do​​

Making Medical Decisions​​​

Feelings about the Care Partner Role​

Healthcare Interactions​​

Health and Self Care​

Relationships with Others​

Relationship with the Person with Cancer​

Grappling with Grief​

Messages to Clinicians​​

Messages to Family & Friends​

Messages to Other Care Partners​

All Messages​