European journal of oncology nursing : the official journal of European Oncology Nursing Society
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Despite growing research in the UK suggesting that patients from black and ethnic minority groups feel that they do not always receive the best treatment and care, little is known about how care professionals themselves respond to working with this group. The study, involving focus groups with health and social care staff, was undertaken to learn about their views and experiences. The principal finding was the extent to which staff experience difficulties in caring for patients from black and ethnic minority groups. ⋯ They were also conscious of not being fully sensitive to patients' differing cultures, while noting the importance of not making assumptions about particular beliefs or behaviour. Staff would welcome training to help them to explore their attitudes and assumptions in working with black and ethnic minority patients, but did not seek induction into the detailed practices of different cultures. Some staff felt they would benefit from training in working with interpreters.
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The purpose of this study is to find out what cancer patients' relatives think about the informational and emotional support they receive from health care professionals before and after the patient's death. The data were collected with a structured questionnaire administered to relatives of cancer patients who had died in one of seven health care centres and in one hospice in south-western Finland during a 2-year period before data collection. The questionnaires were sent out by staff to one family member of each adult patient (n=910). ⋯ However, relatives had only limited opportunity to talk about their difficulties in everyday life. After the death of the patient, staff had mostly supported relatives by showing their acceptance of them and by giving them the time they wanted. Some background variables for both patients and relatives correlated with the support received by relatives before and after the patient's death.
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The purpose of this small-scale study was to assess the existence of a symptom cluster involving breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety in patients with advanced lung cancer undergoing palliative radiation. A convenience sample of 27 patients were asked to complete a set of 100mm horizontal visual analogue scales (VAS) measuring the intensity of anxiety, breathlessness and fatigue at 3 points in time: 1 day prior to palliative radiotherapy (RT) (baseline, T0), and at week 3 (T1) and week 6 (T2) after the commencement of the RT. The prevalence of the 3 symptoms ranged from 59% to 96%. ⋯ The proposed symptom cluster had high internal consistency across T0-T2. These data support the notion that the symptoms--breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety--may be viewed as a symptom cluster. The high prevalence and moderate intensity of the symptom cluster demonstrates a need for an intervention to manage these symptoms simultaneously.
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The aim of this study was to explore how cancer patients with progressive disease perceived and experienced supportive care at the different stages of their cancer journey and to compare this to the perceptions of health care professionals. It was a single centre study using qualitative data obtained from two focus group interviews in an independent centre for specialist palliative care. Eight patients attending the centre were interviewed in two focus groups to ascertain their views on the supportive care that they had experienced during the course of their illness, focusing on: time of diagnosis, acute treatment phase and palliative care phase. Themes that emerged from the analysis of the interview transcripts using the QSR NUD*IST (version 4) software package included the following: manner in which diagnosis was revealed, information made available to family and friends, patients' acceptance of cancer; service provision such as a named contact person, choices in treatment and care, problems of limited resources; feelings of being unsupported, and ways in which supportive care could be improved.
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The purpose of this study was to define various methods of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) used by cancer patients and their characteristics in Turkey. The sample consisted of 100 cancer patients who were monitored in the oncology outpatient and inpatient departments of two hospitals. Almost all participating patients were receiving conventional treatment, 36% of which were also using CAM methods. ⋯ Of the patients, 79.3% acknowledged a varying degree of benefit from the methods they use. The most frequently indicated benefit was "feeling better both physically and emotionally". Most findings in this study are similar to the results of other research conducted on the subject in Turkey.