BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION BY ONCOLOGY NURSES FOR THE TREATMENT OF CHEMOTHERAPY SIDE EFFECTS.
Contributors: California School Of Professional Psychology - San Diego.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 114
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.
Description: Behavioral interventions (i.e., progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery) have been shown to be a viable means of controlling the adverse side effects (i.e., anticipatory nausea, anxiety and vomiting) cancer patients experience from chemotherapy treatment. Past research has utilized clinical psychologists to train and support cancer patients throughout their treatment. It has been suggested, however, that treatment gains and cost effectiveness are not at their optimal level of efficiency when a clinical psychologist is used as a consultant for these patients. The purpose of this study was to determine if oncology nurses could be trained to administer these behavioral interventions to cancer patients and achieve the same results as the consulting clinical psychologists.

The subjects of the study were twenty cancer patients who were receiving chemotherapy treatment; all were randomly assigned to a treatment (patients were trained in progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery) or control group. Nurses were trained to administer these behavioral treatments to the subjects and make audio tapes for subsequent visits. Subjects filled out pre and post treatment home rating scales and pre and post treatment inclinic scales to measure levels of nausea, anxiety and vomiting over five consecutive treatment sessions. Nurses filled out pre and post in-clinic scales to measure their perception of patient nausea, anxiety and vomiting.

Results of the study do not confirm the efficacy of behavioral techniques when employed by oncology nurses. Lower patient-reported nausea was significant (p < .01) when the nurse was administering treatment in vivo, while lower patient-reported anxiety was found the session after the in vivo treatment (p < .025). The nurses' perception of patient anxiety only approached significance (p < .05) but corroborated a downward trend for each session as reported by the patients. Moderate correlations were found between patient self report and nurse report ratings. Correlations were computed to assess the relationship between the number of times the patients (treatment group only) listened to their relaxation tape at home and gains in relief of reported nausea or anxiety. These revealed higher gains in relief with more home practice.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-03, Section: B, page: 0968.

Thesis (PH.D.)--CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY - SAN DIEGO, 1985.

School code: 0379.