Cancer nursing
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Comparative Study
Differences in self-reported attentional fatigue between patients with breast and prostate cancer at the initiation of radiation therapy.
Attentional fatigue is experienced as a decreased ability to concentrate, engage in purposeful activity, and maintain social relationships when there are competing demands on attention. Breast and prostate cancer are the 2 most common cancers in women and men, respectively. Most previous studies on self-reported attentional fatigue evaluated patients with breast cancer. ⋯ Clinicians should consider the capacity of their patients to direct attention when learning about RT and other treatments. It is important to simplify confusing healthcare terminology and reinforce teaching that is most important both verbally and in writing. Appropriate interventions for anxiety and depression may decrease attentional fatigue in these patients.
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Breast cancer patients are some of today's most proactive healthcare consumers. Given how the media has highlighted the many issues involved in breast cancer, the unprecedented rise of consumerism in general, and the rise of healthcare consumerism specifically, a plethora of information on breast cancer has emerged in both scientific and popular media. It is timely and appropriate to consider breast cancer patients' perspectives regarding their search for health-related information and its use for treatment decision making and coping. ⋯ How health information is delivered in the future given these findings is discussed with specific attention to matching patient preferences with delivery methods to potentially enhance patients' sense of agency with regard to treatment, which has been shown to improve patients' psychosocial outcomes.
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Considering all sources of errors that may occur during healthcare, medication errors are the most common and also the most frequent cause of adverse events. ⋯ In an institution without adverse events report and a formal system to patient safety analysis, the implementation of a local nonpunitive approach to medication errors notification represented an important tool to patient safety promotion.