Kudos to Paula Koppel, PhD student, and her sponsor, Jennie De Gagne, professor, for the submission of her NLN Scholarship application entitled: "Exploring Nurse and Patient Experiences of Rapport during Oncology Ambulatory Care Video-Conferencing Visits: A Qualitative Study." This proposal requests funds for a 17-month period with a start date of August 1, 2021.

When telehealth videoconferencing became essential for patients with cancer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, providers had little research to support this change in interactive practice and had concerns about its effect on the patient-provider relationship. Studies suggest that interactions during videoconferencing, although similar to in-person encounters, present unique challenges that can impact rapport, diagnostic accuracy, and treatment compliance. Rapport is critical for facilitating holistic assessment of needs and personalization of care and for establishing a trusting and therapeutic relationship yet despite its importance, little is known about the impact of videoconferencing visits on nurse-patient rapport, and measures of rapport have not been tested in this setting.

The specific aims for the study include:

1. Complete an initial gap analysis of the state of current knowledge regarding oncology nurse-patient rapport during videoconferencing using systematic review methodologies.
2. Explore the nature of rapport between oncology nurses and patients with cancer during videoconferencing through a qualitative descriptive study.
3. Determine the feasibility of using behavioral indices of positivity resonance and self-report items of perceived positivity resonance to measure rapport between nurses and patients with cancer in videoconferencing.