Cancer nursing
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There is a growing emphasis on improving the quality of ending life in China today; however, Chinese professional nursing education in palliative care is limited and inconsistent, and there are no standardized formal training contents. There is a need to construct a related training mode to help Chinese nurses to improve their quality of palliative care. The objective of this study was to construct palliative-care-related training contents for Chinese clinical nurses. ⋯ The expert panelists reached consensus on 69 training items that belonged to 6 modules; these were (1) 8 items for the palliative care overview, (2) 24 items for symptom care, (3) 15 items for psychological care, (4) 13 items for communication and exchange, (5) 5 items for ethics and laws, and (6) 4 items for terminal care. This study formed a 6-module training content through Delphi study, which will provide the basic guideline for Chinese nurses to establish their core competence about palliative care. The 6-module integrated training mode achieved in this study represents the core knowledge and skill that a nurse who provides palliative care in China needs to know; then the nurse can choose any module to get training according to his or her practical needs and availability, totally or separately.
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Oral cancer patients' supportive care needs during the postoperative period can impact their family caregivers' burden. The purposes of this study were to (1) examine patients' perceived levels of supportive care needs, (2) examine caregivers' perceived levels of caregiving burden, and (3) examine the predictive factors for caregivers' caregiving burden with newly diagnosed oral cancer patients during the postoperative period. A cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted. ⋯ Factors significantly related to those burdens across 5 domains of caregiving burden were caregivers' social support, patients' physical and daily living needs, patients' health system and information needs, and patients' psychological needs. Postoperative oral cancer patients experienced relatively high unmet supportive care needs, and caregivers perceived moderate levels of caregiving burden. Healthcare professionals should systematically assess patients' and caregivers' problems and provide timely supportive care clinically.
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Comparative Study
Differences in symptom clusters identified using occurrence rates versus symptom severity ratings in patients at the end of radiation therapy.
The purposes of this study were to identify the number and types of symptom clusters using yes/no responses from the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, identify the number and types of symptom clusters using severity scores from the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, compare the identified symptom clusters derived using severity scores to those derived using occurrence ratings, and evaluate for differences in symptom cluster severity scores between patients with breast and prostate cancer at the end of radiation therapy. Separate exploratory factor analyses were performed to determine the number of symptom clusters based on symptom occurrence rates and symptom severity ratings. ⋯ Significant differences in severity scores for all 3 symptom clusters were found between patients with breast and prostate cancer. For all 3 symptom clusters, the patients with breast cancer had higher symptom cluster severity scores than the patients with prostate cancer.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Preliminary evaluation of psychoeducational support interventions on quality of life in rural breast cancer survivors after primary treatment.
Although most cancer survivors are at risk for being lost in the transition from treatment to survivorship, rural breast cancer survivors face special challenges that might place them at particular risk. This small-scale preliminary study had 2 specific aims: (aim 1) establish the feasibility of rural breast cancer survivors participation in a longitudinal quality of life (QOL) intervention trial and (aim 2) determine the effects of the Breast Cancer Education Intervention (BCEI) on overall QOL. Fifty-three rural breast cancer survivors were randomized to either an experimental (n = 27) or a wait-control arm (n = 26). ⋯ Data were analyzed using repeated-measures general linear mixed models. Results demonstrated the ability to recruit and retain 53 rural breast cancer survivors, that the experimental arm showed improvement in overall QOL (P = .013), and that there were significant differences in overall QOL between the experimental and wait-control groups at both months 3 and 6. Thus, it appears that at least some rural breast cancer survivors can and will participate in a larger trial and will maintain their participation and that those that do participate experience significant QOL benefit.
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Changes in sexuality and intimacy after cancer were examined using open-ended questionnaire responses with 156 informal carers who were partners of a person with cancer. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants to examine changes in depth. Seventy-six percent of partners of a person with "nonreproductive" cancer types and 84% of partners caring for a person with cancer involving "reproductive" sites reported an impact on their sexual relationship. ⋯ Changes to sexuality were associated with reports of self-blame, rejection, sadness, anger, and lack of sexual fulfillment. Positive consequences of changes included accepting the changed sexual relationship and having increased closeness and intimacy. These findings reinforce the need to acknowledge the sexual needs of partners as well as people with cancer, by healthcare professionals working in cancer and palliative care.