Nursing Processes Supporting Individually Meaningful Life–Styles of Outpatients Undergoing Chemotherapy

Abstract

Abstract

The need of nursing support for outpatient chemotherapy is increasing with the shift from inpatient to outpatient settings. However, the lack of appropriate nursing support focusing on each patientʼs life-style issues has been pointed out. The purpose of this study was to identify appropriate nursing methods and processes which help chemotherapy patients pursue individually meaningful life–styles. Our study subjects were 14 nurses with 5 years experience or more in clinical practice and 1 year or more （mean: 3.5 ± 1.7 years） in the outpatient chemotherapy unit. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the results were analyzed by the modified grounded theory approach. From our results, we noted a core category of “assisting patientsʼ lives according to their own sense of values”. Firstly, the nurses attempted to “sense the usual life-style of the patient”, and then tried to help “each patient maintain their usual life-style as much as possible”. Further, depending on the timing, nurses “expressed understanding of patientʼs unstable feeling”, and served as a “liaison between the professional support” of medical and co-medical staff members. Finally, nurses personally “reflect on the nursing care they provided”. The need for specific nursing processes varied depending on the individual patientʼs condition and feelings. To properly cope with the needs of individual patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy, it is important to comprehensively consider the desired life-style of the patients, taking into account their usual life-styles and physiological effects of the chemotherapy.