Cancer nursing
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Pain is a major problem for patients with advanced cancer and one of the most frequent and disturbing of all cancer-related symptoms. Researchers continue to report that cancer pain remains undertreated. Inadequate pain control can significantly affect the patient's quality of life and may in turn affect the patient's will to live or comply with treatment recommendations. A better understanding of the experience of cancer pain management is important in identifying factors responsible for undertreated pain. ⋯ Special attention should be paid by policymakers, professionals, and family caregivers to the marginalized group of cancer patients who suffer with pain.
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Comparative Study
Procedural care for adult bone marrow aspiration and biopsy: qualitative research findings from Australia.
This article presents a subset of findings on the experience of bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMAB) from an Australian hematology survivorship study. ⋯ The insights provide urgency to the call for further research to improve clinical practice and procedural care in relation to BMABs. The strong recommendation from the study is that procedural pain in relation to BMABs for hematology patients be managed from the initial procedure as the consequences of a traumatic experience can be far reaching, particularly in light of the need for repeated BMABs over the treatment trajectory. As specialist nurses are now increasingly taking responsibility for carrying out such procedures, the findings have implications for the nursing profession.
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By receiving palliative treatment over time, a growing number of people with advanced gastrointestinal cancer are living longer. An image of palliative care, often existing in the public, as being exclusively for the dying could thus be particularly challenging in relation to patients' making sense of receiving palliative treatment over time. ⋯ The attention of health professionals must be directed at recognizing and enhancing patients' ways of seeking knowledge to help them make sense of receiving palliative treatment. Person-centered activities need to be developed.