Nurse's perceptions and experiences of using of a mobile-phone-based Advanced Symptom Management System (ASyMS) to monitor and manage chemotherapy-related toxicity.
Many people diagnosed with cancer will receive chemotherapy as a core component of their care. Recent changes in the delivery of cancer services mean that patients frequently receive care on an out-patient basis and are therefore often required to manage related side effects at home without direct support from oncology health professionals. The use of information and communications technology may be seen as a means of supporting patients receiving chemotherapy in the home care setting. This mixed methods study, reports on the perceptions of nurses (n=35) who participated in a randomised controlled trial of a mobile phone based, Advanced Symptom Management System (ASyMS), in the management of chemotherapy-related toxicity in patients with breast, lung and colorectal cancer. Nurses' perceptions of ASyMS were evaluated at the start and the end of the study. Overall, they could see the benefits of ASyMS in the remote monitoring of chemotherapy toxicity and its role in facilitating early intervention and subsequent management, demonstrating the potential utility of the system within clinical practice.
Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Cancer Care Research Centre, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK. roma.maguire@stir.ac.uk
R
R
Maguire
L
L
McCann
M
M
Miller
N
N
Kearney
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D040421:Cell Phone; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000451:nursing*; D004739:England; D018575:Home Care Services, Hospital-Based; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000451:nursing*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012606:Scotland; D055817:Telenursing