The Development of a Continuing Nursing Care Program for Cancer Patients after Discharge

The purpose of this study was to develop a continuing nursing care program for cancer patients and the caregivers staying at their home and to test its effects on patients' symptom distress, caregiver burden, and satisfaction of life. The continuing nursing care program was based on the homecare needs of cancer patients, and was provided by three clinical nurses who took care of the patients while they were hospitalized. The program consisted of discharge education about selfcare using education materials(book and handout) and provisions of direct care. These were counselling and education during which visiting patients' home one week after discharge and telephone counseling two weeks after discharge. Counseling by telephone was always available during the research period. A quasi-experimental research design was used to test the effects of the program. Subjects for this study were 53 cancer patients discharged from the hospital and caregivers. These subjects were assigned to an experimental group (n=23) receiving continuous nursing care, or to a control group (n=30) not receiving continuous nursing care. Data from control group was collected first to protect from contamination. Data collection was done from October of 1998 to February of 2000. The collected data was analysed using mean, t-test, and chi-square test computed by SPSS software. The summary of results was as follows: 1) The symptom distress was a little decreased at posttest, but there were no significant differences between the experimental and the control group in symptom distress. 2) The score of caregiver burden was significantly decreased in experimental group at posttest, but no differences in control group. 3) There were no significant differences between the experimental and control group in the satisfaction of life. 4) The score of satisfaction of continuing nursing care program in experimental group at posttest was 2.321 of 3. In conclusion, even though this study did not obtain evidence of effectiveness of continuing nursing care program on patients, such as. It is still expected to be effective by a more improved program. Therefore we want to give some suggestions for further studies. 1) It is needed to make a communication channel with the patient's doctor to response promptly and appropriately to patient's conditions. 2) The research is necessary on patients in terminal stage or early stage of cancer diagnosis who have many nursing needs. 3) It is needed to readjust the roles and job assignment of clinical nurse to implement effectively as a program provider.