Nurses' attitutudes about the ESAS scale in oncology: cross sectional observational study.

BACKGROUND: The evaluation of signs and symptoms in cancer patients has to be realized by validated screening tools, such as the ESAS scale that is considerend by scientistists an appropriate instrument. AIM: I conducted an observational study. The primary objective of my study was to describe the nurses' attitude towards the ESAS questionnaire. The secondary objective was to assess the level of agreement between the compilation of the ESAS by the nurse and by the patient. METHODS: I prepared a questionaire with eleven items for the nurses in order to understand their attitude forward the ESAS scale. Secondly, I administered the ESAS scale to the cancer patients and the nurses also completed the scale; they answered using their knowledges about the patients. RESULTS: 12 nurses took part to my project. For each question at least one nurse answered "completely in agreement" and no one answered "disagreement" or "completely disagreement". Furthermore, a significant difference between the answers gave by the nurses and the answers gave by the patients is present for 5 symptoms of the ESAS scale: pain, tiredness, drowsiness, nausea, shortness of breath. For the other symptoms (depression, anxiety, appetite and wellbeing) I didn't find significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of signs and symptoms in cancer patients is an activity of primary importance as it is able to significatly improve the quality of life and the therapeutic results. NURSING IMPLICATIONS: nurses must take responsibility in order to promote and protect the health of cancer patients.