Comparison of clinical effectiveness of nurse led care among Chinese patients with cancer: A prospective study evaluating effective patient care compared to consultant oncologist.

OBJECTIVE

The NLC model in oncology setting was not well established in China, and there was no study evaluating the clinical effectiveness of NLC versus oncologist-led care (OLC) in Chinese patients with cancer. We therefore designed a pilot study to evaluate the clinical usefulness after NLC versus OLC in Chinese patients with cancer.

METHODS

This pilot, single center, prospective study was designed to evaluate clinical effectiveness of NLC versus oncologist-led care (OLC) in Chinese patients with cancer. Adult patients of either gender (aged between 20 and 65 years) who were diagnosed with any cancer at China were included. The patients' with stage IV cancer or who were not willing to give written consent to participate in this study were excluded during screening phase of our study. We assessed the symptoms from each enrolled patients, the most common symptoms associated with any cancer patients are pain, dyspnea and constipation. Also distress symptoms (caused by pain and dyspnea) and low quality of life are seen in patients with advanced stage of cancer.

RESULTS

A total of 220 patients who were visited in our hospital for consultation were enrolled and assigned to nurse led care and oncologist led care group (110 patients in each group). Pain intensity, dyspnea intensity and constipation intensity was recorded for patients of nurse led care and oncologist led care group. Pain intensity, dyspnea intensity and constipation intensity on numerical rating scale was numerically lesser in Nurse led care group as compared to oncologist led care group. However, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The mean QoL score of each key domain of QoL was higher in nurse led care group when compared to oncologist led care group. Overall, significant improvement in quality of life was observed in individuals underwent in nurse led care group than oncologist led care group.

CONCLUSION

The results of this preliminary study showed that NLC results in better clinical outcome in terms of improvement in pain intensity, dyspnea intensity, symptom distress, constipation score, and QOL in comparison to oncologist led care among Chinese cancer patients. This study results can aid as a base for steering outsized clinical study to form the model of NLC among Chinese cancer patients.