Holistic care of the patient with cervical cancer.

Participation by women in screening programs for cervical cancer is far from optimal, and many lives are lost because of this. Cervical cancer is common, and is easily detected and treated. It has a good prognosis for cure if detected early in its course. Effective screening has been shown to have a major role in decreasing the morbidity and mortality associated with cervical cancer. Therefore, there is a need for increased public health education and availability of screening programs for women. It is particularly important that public health efforts reach women in the lower socioeconomic groups who are less apt to exhibit health promotive behaviors. Women of Latin American heritage are at particularly high risk because of cultural barriers to the discussion of sexual practices. Until public health interventions are more successful, cervical cancer will continue to pose a major threat to women who are either too embarrassed or too misinformed to understand that prevention is an integral part of women's health care. Nurses view patients in a holistic way. It is this philosophy of care that offers women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer a means to adapt successfully to the psychologic and physiologic stresses associated with the diagnosis. Nurses need to recognize this strength and to offer holistic approaches to women in crisis. No two patients deal with a diagnosis of cancer in the same manner. A major challenge to nurses across a hospital community continuum is to provide comprehensive psychologic and physiologic assessment of a women's response to a diagnosis of cervical cancer and to provide effective and holistic intervention when necessary.