Cancer and work in Romania

Project title: Community participation for reducing the burden of cancer: stakeholders’ involvement in facilitating the return to work of cancer patients

The project is supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education, CNCS-UEFISCDI

Project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0478 (contract no. 363 din 01/10/2015)

The project director is a member of the COST Network CANWON - Cancer and Work (http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/isch/IS1211)

Duration: October 2015 - September 2017

(+40) 752721909 - Alexandra Sidor (pentru participanții din Cluj)

News 2017

27 of July

Dissemination Conference: Revenirea la muncă după cancer în România: experiențe și provocări.

All the members in our team presented papers in this dissemination conference. Over 30 participants (physicians, psychologists, social workers and employers) were part of this event.

July 2017

Elaboration of two synthetic documents based on the project results

- Policy Brief - with recommendations for policy makers

- Brochure for employers

May-July 2017

Analyzing data on employers and recruiters. Writing the article Supporting the return to work after cancer in Romania: the employers’ perspective (authors: Popa Adela-Elena, Morandau Felicia, Popa Radu-Ioan, Rusu Mihai Stelian, Sidor Alexandra) which was submitted to an international journal.

May 2017

Panel session within the 2nd International Conference on Non-communicable Diseases (ICONiC)

Hold the Door Against Injury and Disease. Four members in our team presented papers in this panel.

News 2016

December 2016

Data collection finalized (80 interviews collected).

Resubmition of articles.

November 2016

Continuing data collection and interview transcribing. So far around 75 interviews collected.

Preparing the interview transcriptions for the analyze.

October 2016

Collecting and transcribing interviews. So far around 65 interviews collected.

Work in progress on a qualitative evidence synthesis on returning to work after cancer which might become an article (Adela Popa).

Alexandra Sidor participated in a course on Nvivo for Windows, in London, UK, on..

The team started to import the interviews in Nvivo in order to begin the analysis.

September 2016

Collecting and transcribing interviews. So far around 60 interviews collected.

Adela Popa participated in the European Cancer Rehabilitation & Survivorship Symposium, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 19-20 September, with the poster presentation Motivations, needs and barriers regarding returning to work after cancer in Romania.

Adela Popa, Ionela Vlase and Felicia Morândău participated in The 4th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS), ”New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?”, in Sibiu, 29th of September – 1 st of October 2016, with the paper Limits and opportunities in addressing cancer by Romanian NGOs.

Adela Popa participated in The 4th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS), ”New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?”, in Sibiu, 29th of September – 1 st of October 2016, with the paper ”Lady, don’t you want to retire?”, “No, I don’t!”, “Are you sure? Do you know what illness you have?” - Who hinders the return to work of employees after cancer.

Radu Popa participated in The 4th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS), ”New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?”, in Sibiu, 29th of September – 1 st of October 2016, with the paper Psychological barriers and facilitators inside the return to work process of cancer patients in Romania

Felicia Morândău participated in The 4th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS), ”New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?”, in Sibiu, 29th of September – 1 st of October 2016, with the paper Employers’ attitudes and behaviours towards employees returning to work after cancer.

Alexandra Sidor participated in The 4th International Conference of the Romanian Sociological Society (RSS), ”New Societies, Old Minorities / New Minorities, Old Societies?”, in Sibiu, 29th of September – 1 st of October 2016, with the paper Barriers in returning to work of Romanian cancer survivors: employers' perspectives.

Article on Challenges for employees with cancer in Romania – policies for return to work (authors: Adela Popa and Radu Popa) finalized and sent to an ISI journal.

Work in progress on the article ”Workforce participation and other employment outcomes in longer-term cancer survivors”, (authors: Adela Popa and colleagues from COST Network CANWON)

August 2016

Collecting and transcribing interviews. So far around 50 interviews collected.

July 2016

Field work: the team is focusing on collecting and transcribing the interviews. So far around 25 interviews collected.

Work in progress on the article ”Workforce participation and other employment outcomes in longer-term cancer survivors”, (authors: Adela Popa and colleagues from COST Network CANWON)

June 2016

Database with stakeholders finalized. The team started collecting the interviews.

Adela Popa, Ionela Vlase and Felicia Morândău participated in the International Conference "Social sciences and the contemporary challenges. 20 years of teaching sociology at the University of Oradea", at Oradea University, 9-10 June 2016, presenting the paper Nongovernment sector fighting cancer in Romania.

Work in progress on the article Challenges for employees with cancer in Romania – policies for return to work, authors: Adela Popa and Radu Popa.

Work in progress on the article ”Workforce participation and other employment outcomes in longer-term cancer survivors”, (authors: Adela Popa and colleagues from COST Network CANWON)

May 2016

Alexandra Sidor, underwent a documentation stage at

Interview guides finalized for all the categories of stakeholders.

Article Nongovernment sector fighting cancer in Romania (authors: Adela Popa, Ionela Vlase, Felicia Morândău) finalized and sent to a BDI journal (Journal of Community Positive Practices).

Article Living with cancer in Romania: a review of cancer policies during 2001-2016 (author Adela Popa) finalised and sent to an ISI journal.

Work in progress on the article ”Workforce participation and other employment outcomes in longer-term cancer survivors”, (authors: Adela Popa and colleagues from COST Network CANWON)

April 2016

Radu Ioan Popa underwent a documentation stage at Andrija Stampar School of Public Health in Zagreb, for working on the article Challenges for employees with cancer in Romania – policies for return to work.

The team finalized the interview guides on the first two categories of stakeholders and started working on the interview guides for other three categories: patients which did not returned to work after diagnosis, physicians and HR recruiters.

The team started working on the informed consent documents for the various categories of stakeholders.

We continue to build the database with subjects for the interviews.

March 2016

We continue to build the database with subjects for the interviews. Employers seem to be reluctant to participate in the study.

The team started to work on the interview guides for two categories of stakeholders: patients which returned to work after diagnosis and employers.

Work in progress on the article Nongovernment sector fighting cancer in Romania. Authors: Adela Popa, Ionela Vlase, Felicia Morândău.

Work in progress on the article Living with cancer in Romania: a review of cancer policies during 2001-2016. Author: Adela Popa

February 2016

The team is working at analyzing and operationalising the research concepts.

The team started to compile the database with potential subjects for the interview (patients, physicians, recruitors and employers).

Process started to gain access in universities for the three members of the team which will go in documentation stages.

January 2016

Radu-Ioan Popa published the article Theoretical perspectives upon the return to work of cancer patients: The difficult path of integration in the organization in Social Change Review (BDI journal).

Our team is complete now. Felicia Morândău will work with us as a postdoctoral researcher.

Analysing scientific literature - finalised. The result is a database with 60 articles reviewed.

Work in progress on the article ”Workforce participation and other employment outcomes in longer-term cancer survivors”, (authors: Adela Popa and colleagues from COST Network CANWON)

News 2015

December 2015

The team is working at reviewing the literature on return to work of cancer patients (emplyees' and employers' needs, barriers, factors) and community participation.

The team finished the intermediate report for 2015. The report can be accessed here.

November 2015

The team is formed. Alexandra Sidor, doctoral student at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca was selected to be part of our team.