Oncology nurses' recognition of supportive care needs and symptoms of their patients undergoing chemotherapy.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the accuracy of oncology nurses' recognition of supportive care needs and symptoms of their patients undergoing chemotherapy.


METHODS
The participants comprised randomly selected cancer outpatients receiving chemotherapy in an ambulatory setting and 17 oncology nurses working in two chemotherapy units in Japan. For assessment of the patients' supportive care needs and symptoms, the patients were asked to respond to a validated self-administered questionnaire. The oncology nurses completed a survey in which they indicated their perception of the level of the same set of needs or symptoms. The two data sets obtained from the patients and nurses were compared statistically to assess the accuracy of the oncology nurses' recognition of their patients' needs and symptoms.


RESULTS
Complete data sets were available for 439 patients. The most common primary cancers were breast cancer (36.0%), followed by colorectal (24.4%) and lung (12.3%) cancers. Nurses' awareness of their patients' supportive care needs and physical and psychological symptoms were less than optimal in routine care. In particular, psychological symptoms and support needs for these symptoms were markedly under-recognized. Physical symptoms associated with chemotherapy, such as hair loss, appetite loss and fatigue, were better recognized than symptoms not specific to chemotherapy, such as constipation, insomnia, dyspnea and pain.


CONCLUSIONS
Oncology nurses' recognition may not accurately reflect their patients' supportive care needs and symptoms in routine practice. In clinical practice, it may be beneficial to conduct routine screening of patients' perceived needs and symptoms comprehensively using self-administered questionnaires.
Nagoya City University Hospital, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Tomohiro
T
Nakaguchi
Toru
T
Okuyama
Megumi
M
Uchida
Yoshinori
Y
Ito
Hirokazu
H
Komatsu
Makoto
M
Wada
Tatsuo
T
Akechi
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care; D010465:Perception; D011788:Quality of Life; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires