The meaning of work varies over time, but first and foremost work was regarded as an important part of the healing process as it restores the disruption of everyday life. Guidelines cannot be reduced to a linear relationship with biomedical variables but the individual context of everyday life must be considered.

The presented model of patients needs as converging into 'admission into a helping plan' may serve as an easily comprehendible model for caregivers, guiding them to contribute to the patient's feeling of security and trust, and thus to the patient's own 'hope work'.

No abstract

Oncology social workers (OSWs) play a key role in cancer services, but they have mainly been described from an Anglo-Saxon perspective. This study aims to widen the field by scrutinizing the role and function of OSWs in Sweden. By means of a nationwide questionnaire to Swedish OSWs, the professional characteristics of this group are described, as well as their descriptions and reflections on their clinical function and their experiences of barriers to optimal functioning. Our findings indicate that Swedish OSWs seem to have taken a different path than in other countries by mainly providing therapeutic treatment and counseling to the patients rather than working with discharge planning. However, due to a mismatch between clinical demands and the training of Swedish OSWs, some suggestions are provided for future social work education in Sweden.

The residence becomes an interactional field with the potential to facilitate patients in resuming a new everyday life. The women who do not interact with others and/or who are stuck with feelings of anxiety should be offered the opportunity to take part in a group exclusively for "fellow sisters" in a similar situation. Implications for Rehabilitation Staying in accommodations together with other patients receiving daily radiotherapy for cancer for 5-6 weeks lends itself to personal interactions with a rehabilitative impact. Some patients take advantage of this possibility, which might facilitate the integration of the cancer experience into a new self-image. To some more vulnerable patients the stay at the patient hotel is burdensome, and these patients represent a target group for staff interventions aiming to facilitate their stay and their resumption of a new everyday life. A suggestion is that the specialist nurses meet with every patient after about a week in order to identify women who would benefit from psychosocial interventions.