Ruth McCorkle, PhD, FAAN, and Jeannie V. Pasacreta, PhD, RN, CS,
School of Nursing, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Background: Families are increasingly replacing skilled health care workers in the delivery of unfamiliar complex care to their relatives with cancer, despite other obligations and responsibilities that characterize their lives. Methods: The authors review the needs of cancer caregivers and describe intervention strategies not only presented I the literature, but also implemented in their own program of research to address those needs during the palliative phase of cancer.