Cancer nursing
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Comparative Study
Patient-reported family distress among long-term cancer survivors.
Two quality of life studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and 3 similar studies in the nursing literature were compared regarding family distress to illness scores as reported by long-term cancer survivors. All studies were cross-sectional mail surveys and used City of Hope National Medical Center questionnaires. Participants represented a broad range of survivorship in terms of diagnosis and length of survival (range of means 3Y8 years). ⋯ Longitudinal assessment of patients' and families' quality of life is essential throughout survivorship. Future studies should identify and compare the types distress experienced by patient survivors and families over time and also measure the intensity of their distress. Interventions designed to meet their individual and collective needs, thereby decreasing their distress, are needed to improve quality of life for survivors and families.
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Cancer treatment is increasingly being provided in outpatient settings, requiring many of the responsibilities for patient care to be undertaken by family caregivers. Pain is one of the most frequent and distressing symptoms experienced by cancer patients and is a primary concern for the family caregiver. Caregivers struggle with many issues that lead to inadequate management of cancer pain. ⋯ Between 46% and 94% of the caregivers reported having at least some agreement with the various concerns that are barriers to reporting pain and using analgesics, and up to 15% reported having strong agreement. The areas of greatest concern were about opioid-related side effects, fears of addiction, and the belief that pain meant disease progression. Results showed that caregivers with higher pain management knowledge had significantly fewer barriers to cancer pain management, supporting the importance of increasing caregiver's knowledge of management of cancer pain.
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The purpose of this study was to adapt Champion's Revised Health Belief Model Scale for Turkish women and to examine selected sociodemographic variables associated with breast self-examination (BSE). Data were collected from a total of 430 females who were living in one of the Health Center areas located in Izmir, a city in the west of Turkey. Champion's revised Health Belief Model Scale was translated into Turkish, validated by professional judges, translated back into English, and then tested. ⋯ The frequency of BSE practice was higher in high school and university graduates, women with a family history of breast cancer, and women with breast cancer and BSE training. The Turkish version of Champion's Revised Health Belief Model Scale was found to be a valid and reliable tool for use with Turkish women. It could be used to evaluate health beliefs about breast cancer and BSE among Turkish women.