Most nurses already know and have abundant experience with patients in palliative care. Recently, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) study confirmed that patients who receive early palliative care and standard treatment for advanced cancer have a better quality of life than those patients who do not receive the same interventions. Palliative care has been defined through symptom management, setting goals of care, and providing a variety of support from diagnosis throughout the survivor’s treatment.
Medication errors are difficult to quantify in home hospice care, since the patients and their families are doing most of the medication administration themselves. This is a story about how one family members’ inquisitive attitude and partnership with her husband’s hospice nurse prevented a potentially serious medication error.
Oncology nurses are at an increased risk of exposure to airborne hazards when they’re administering cytotoxic treatments and caring for immunosuppressed patients that are susceptible to resistant infections. Airborne transmission occurs through small particles or droplet nuclei that remain in the air for extended periods of time. Healthcare organizations are expected to provide sufficient respiratory protection for workers potentially exposed to infectious organisms and hazardous agents.
Oncology nurses face some uncomfortably common truths when treating patients with cancer. Invariably—no matter how hard certain patients fight—some will die from their diseases. Patient death is a part of oncology care, and no nurse would tell you differently. But accepting and dealing with loss and grief is sometimes pushed aside in favor of stoic attitudes that some may equate with professionalism.
On November 21, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved daratumumab (Darzalex®, Janssen Biotech, Inc.) in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone, or bortezomib and dexamethasone, for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least one prior therapy.
Even women with smaller breast cancer tumors and three or fewer lymph nodes involved can benefit from radiation therapy after mastectomy, according to the results of new guidelines published.
Women with early-stage breast cancer who have more perceived barriers to aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment are less likely to adhere to their treatment regimens, according to the results of a study published in Cancer.
Although it’s hard to find the time to do so during a busy shift, there are times when you need to consult the best practice standards to support your work for a particular process. Whether you’re considering the best procedure for a central line dressing change or accessing an implanted port, or you’re considering the verification process and the best way to administer an IV chemotherapy agent, you need to know that your policies—and the competencies which you've engrained into your memory—are evidence-based and supported by your institution and professional organizations. Quality outcomes and measurements have never been more central to health care than they are now, and ONS-developed standards go a long way to supporting your practice.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s (NCCNs’) Best Practice Committee has recently issued guidelines that advise healthcare providers to dilute vinca alkaloids in a mini-IV drip bag, rather than preparing and providing the agent in a syringe.
