Effect of Nursing on Stress Levels of Cancer Patients

Does good nursing management can influence the nursing care to reduce stress, anxiety and difficult behaviour in cancer patients as compare to ineffective management plan to achieve better therapeutic outcomes? Search terms that can be used for relevant literature will be nursing management plans for patients with cancer, stress, anxiety, good nurse patient relationship, and challenging behaviours.

The research is to explore and summarize the literature based on the published information such as journals, articles, books. The purpose of this review is to identify best practice evidence that examining the cancer patients. The literature review will give direction to plan the study and understand the outcomes. (Burns & Grove 2009). The difficult patient behaviour versus good nursing strategies based on the research question (Emold et al 2011).

Inclusion criteria included the all publications based on the difficult patient behaviour and good nursing management plans to reduce stress and anxiety in patients. The strength of evidence was based on the hierarchy of evidence with randomised controlled trial and meta-analysis being considered the best evidence as the primary source if available. Other research and levels of evidence was included where evidence was not that much strong. The literature review was undertaken using electronic data bases and catalogues such as CINAHL, science direst, PubMed, for the period of 2007 and 2014. Using the original question the key phrases ‘difficult patient behaviour in oncology’ and good nursing management strategies, stress and anxiety pain, and some psychological factors those can lead to negative outcomes on patients health outcomes and nurses attitude. These search terms highlighted the number of articles on different types of cancer patients then advanced search engine was used to narrow my search to find out the good sourced information. Going through the abstracts of each of the articles were considered the relevance and quality. Exclusion criteria includes the key words and points those will not be covered in research such as good communication strategies, challenging behaviour and comparison between effective and ineffective management plans. The good literature review and databases mostly covered the qualitative and quantitative criteria based on the clinical question and case scenario.

1. Develop a summary table based on your 15 selected studies (500 words).

2. Based on your summary table, provide a synthesis of the key findings and conclusions in relation to your PICO question (250 words). Support your summary from relevant literature (use in text referencing)

Good nursing management plans is one of the most effective and appropriate option for the hospitalised cancer patients. Various research studies have been conducted and analysed the difference between effective and ineffective nursing care plans. Therefore, Evidence from a variety of resources indicate that staff communication, family support, working environment those factors positively influence the patient prognosis according to Rosenzweig et al 2011; Kvale 2007; Karvien et al 2013; & Emold et al 2011. However, patients diagnosed with cancer causes significant distress such as mentally and physically strains to themselves and family members (Emold et al 2011). Therefore good communication skill, availability of continued support, involvement of families required to overcome these difficult emotions (Kvale 2007 & Vilet et al 2013). Karvinen et al. (2013) & Whitaker et al. (2009) identified the relationship between stress, anxiety, intrusive thoughts and compliance to medical care. Certain psychological factors such as feelings of hopelessness, physical and mental strains affect the nursing care and patient’s prognosis (Remmers et al 2010). Different intervention strategies have also been discussed in literature such as mindfulness, self-efficacy, emotional support has the beneficial effects to the general health of patients according to Tsang et al. (2012). There are certain factors those influenced the nursing care such as workload, emotional exhaustion, and decision making skills among staff may lead to negative response and affect the patient’s well-being (McCormack et al 2011). However, the literature lacks some efficacy based on the good intervention strategies for staff to overcome the difficult patient’s behaviour. Overall effective nursing management can be structured to enhance physical, psychological, and emotional wellbeing that assists in promoting positive behaviour and good health outcomes among cancer patients.