Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena
| Thesis Title | Nursing care for patients with lung cancer treated with immunotherapeutic drugs: management, assessment and monitoring of side effects. |
|---|---|
| Name | Santoro Daniele |
| Supervisor(s) | Cinque Giuseppina, Checchi Eleonora |
| Academic Year | 2018/19 |
| Thesis type | Non research thesis |
Abstract
New immunotherapy drugs are increasingly being employed in the oncology setting. This requires constant update by the nurse, who needs now to deal with the side effects caused by immunotherapy drugs administration to oncologic patients. In particular, I here describe the use of immunothrapy drugs in the treatment of lung cancer. The competence of the nurse consists of the evaluation, handling and monitoring of the mentioned complications, in order to provide care based on prevention and specific nursing procedures. Ensuring psycho-physical wellbeing after the immunotherapy treatment also favours better patient adhesion to the treatment. Bibliographic research highlights the importance of using classification system to evaluate the presence and severity of side effects in subjects at risk. Given the importance of careful monitoring and evaluation of side effects in home-based patients, an evaluation form of the most common side effects of immunotherapy treatment has been developed. This can be useful for reinforcing the use of other assessment scales like the “Edmonton Symptom Assessment System” (ESAS). A simplified form can improve patient-nurse communication, help monitor the conditions of home-based patients between therapeutic cycles, improve the handling of adverse events thus to act faster, and promote language uniformity among professionals in the multidisciplinary team.