Effects of emotional support-focused nursing interventions on the psychosocial adjustment of breast cancer patients.

The purpose was to examine the effect of emotional support-focused nursing interventions on the psychosocial adjustment of breast cancer patients. The research was conducted in the Radiation Oncology Department of Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital and at Talay Aktas Oncology Hospital in Turkey. There were 30 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients included in the sample. Emotional support-focused nursing interventions were administered in seven sessions individually with each patient. A total of 210 hours of meetings with the patients were conducted. Data were collected by administering a pre-test and post-test in two phases with the patients using a Descriptive Information Form and the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale - Self Report (PAIS-SR). The patients mean age was 44.5 (SD=6.38) years and the mean duration of illness was 6.46 (SD=1.99) months. In the comparison of the PAIS-SR pretest and post-test mean scores it was determined that there was a significant increase in patients adaptation to health care orientation (p=0.001), domestic environment (p<0.01), sexual relationships (p<0.05), extended family relationships (p<0.001) and social environment (p<0.001), and a significant decrease in psychological distress (p<0.001). However, there was no change in patients vocational adjustment (p<0.05). According to these findings emotional support-focused nursing interventions had a part in increasing patients psychosocial adjustment.