Cancer patients

Objective: To describe the experiences of illness and needs and use of services in two groups of patients with incurable cancer, one in a developed country and the other in a developing country.

Design: Scotland: longitudinal study with qualitative interviews. Kenya: cross sectional study with qualitative interviews.

Settings: Lothian region, Scotland, and Meru District, Kenya.

Nausea and vomiting represent a significant problem in patients with advanced cancer which not only affects their quality of life but also the lives of informal carers. The application of nursing assessment tools, underpinned by a thorough knowledge regarding the physiology and aetiology of nausea arid vomiting in this group of patients enables nurses to plan and provide effective interventions, in collaboration with other members of the multidisciplinary team. This article describes the physiological basis of nausea and vomiting.

Informal carers are people who provide care without a specific professional role. They provide diverse caregiving supports including disease-related problems, side effects of treatment and psychosocial impacts. This paper reports on a comprehensive review of caregiving literature, focusing specifically on cancer caregivers. The paper presents five observations drawn from the literature in order to make recommendations about how caregivers of people with advanced cancer can best be supported.

The role of the district nurse (DN) is difficult to define. Knowledge about the perspectives of patients with cancer, and their informal carers, on the roles of DNs and community services is lacking. The aim of this study is to identify the roles of DNs and community services as perceived by patients with cancer and their carers before and after hospital discharge. Seventy-one pre- and post-discharge conversational interviews were conducted with cancer patients and carers, and analysed thematically.

There is a growing body of research showing that cancer impacts upon the sexuality of informal carers in a couple relationship with a person with cancer. However, this research is primarily focused on partners of a person with gynaecological or breast cancer, within a framework where the physiological effects of cancer on sexual performance are the focus. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 informal carers in a couple relationship with a person with cancer, across a range of cancer types.

A cross-sectional postal survey of bereaved carers was conducted in order to examine levels of satisfaction with services provided for people in their last year of life in the rural county of Powys, Wales, UK. A self-complete questionnaire, using a modified version of the Views of Informal Carers – Evaluation of Services instrument was sent to all bereaved carers of all those people dying of cancer in Powys between 1 April 1999 and 30 June 2001. Eight hundred and five (out of a possible of 815 people) were contacted and 407 agreed to receive the questionnaire.

The place of death of cancer patients has become an important theme in UK cancer and palliative care policy. This paper examines the place of death preferences of 41 terminally ill cancer patients and 18 of their informal carers, living in the Morecambe Bay area of north-west England. We interviewed cancer patients referred to the research team by 13 specialist palliative care professionals; patients had an estimated 3 months of life remaining.

Context: A number of studies have highlighted the poor quality of end-of-life (EOL) care provided in hospital settings, leading to a reduction in the quality of EOL care and increase in patient and caregiver dissatisfaction levels.

Objectives: The aims of this study were the evaluation of the prevalence of major symptoms, treatment, outcomes, information, and care provided to dying cancer patients in Italian hospitals; and an analysis of clinical and socio-demographic factors associated with caregiver satisfaction with the health care provided.

Aims.  This paper presents the results of a systematic review examining the practical information needs of informal caregivers providing home-based palliative and end-of-life care to people with advanced cancer.