Growth and development of oncology nursing in Asia.

Oncology nursing is increasingly recognized around the world as being vitally important for an effective cancer control system. Granted, there is variation between and among countries/regions regarding the strength and nature of that recognition, but oncology nursing is clearly seen as a specialty practice and as a priority for development in cancer control plans, especially for high resource countries/regions. Many countries/regions are beginning to recognize that nurses are vitally important to their cancer control efforts and nurses require specialized education and infrastructure support to make a substantial contribution. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the growth and development of cancer nursing in Asia. Several brief summaries are presented by nurse leaders in cancer care from several Asian countries/regions. Their descriptions reflect illustrations of the leadership nurses are providing in cancer control practice, education, and research in their respective countries/regions. The illustrations also reflect the potential for future development and growth of oncology nursing as a specialty given the many challenges nurses face across Asia. The development of relevant education programs following basic nursing preparation, the establishment of specialty organizations for oncology nurses, and engagement by nurses in policy activity have been influential factors in the growth of oncology nursing in Asia.

Development of a New Tool to Assess the Quality of Life of Patients with Hand-Foot Syndrome Receiving Capecitabine-Based Therapy: A Pilot Study.

Prathepa JagdishBackground Hand-foot syndrome (HFS) can result in significant deficits in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and can lead to poor compliance, dose reduction, or interruption. This study was performed to assess the HRQOL with HFS on physical, psychological, social, and sexual aspects of patients receiving capecitabine-based chemotherapy with gastrointestinal cancer along with validating and assessing the reliability score of the questionnaire. Patients and Methods HFS-related QOL (HF-QOL) questionnaire was developed and validated in a sample of 30 patients randomly selected for this pilot study. The internal consistency of the tool was tested by calculating the Cronbach's α coefficient, while content and construct validity were assessed by Pearson's correlation. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 25.0. Results Out of 30, 22 (73%) patients were males, mean age was 44 ± 13 years; 21 (70%) patients had grade 1 HFS, while 6 (20%) and 3 (10%) patients had grades 2 and 3 HFS, respectively. Cronbach's α coefficient was high for physical (0.79) and sexual scales (0.79), while it was moderately low for psychological (0.65) and social (0.53) domains. The average HF-QOL scores were 70.6 ± 13.2 in physical domain and 71.3 ± 23.7 in sexual domain indicating poor quality of life (QOL), while it was 50.9 ± 9.9 in social domain indicating moderately worse QOL. Grades 2 and 3 of HFS were found to have statistical significance on physical (0.0001), psychological (0.05), and social (0.02) domains, whereas sexual domain did not have any statistical significance (0.594). Conclusion This pilot study showed the feasibility of use and validity of a new patient-reported instrument, the HF-QOL, which measures the effect of HFS on daily activities (physical, psychological, social, and sexual domains) after capecitabine-based chemotherapy.

A study to assess the psychosocial aspects of care for cancer patients with COVID-19 at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India.

COVID-19 has more impact on cancer patients due to their immune compromised status. In this study, we tried to understand the impact of cancer patients afflicted with COVID-19 in the physical, emotional, vocational, financial and social domains. The patient caregivers' problems were also assessed. The investigator tailored the tool and content validity was done by the experts. Total samples were 50 and convenient sampling was used. Descriptive statistics were used and the Shapiro-Wilk's test was used for normalcy of the variables. The major findings were that the majority belonged to male population with an average annual salary. The diagnosis was hematolymphoid as the main focus compared to breast, bone, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, genitourinary and others. Patients who were receiving chemotherapy were in the majority when compared to radiation, Palliation and surgery. In the physical domain, patients experienced fatigue as a major problem most probably due to the treatment of chemotherapy. The other major problems were loss of smell, breathlessness and loss of appetite. Skin pigmentations were not experienced. In the emotional domain, the major problem was the depression they experienced during COVID-19. In the social domain, financial problems was the most important aspect and access to medication acquirement and transport during the pandemic and job securities were the other problems. Care givers felt social distancing to be a major aspect while looking after patients. They were very uncertain about the prognosis of COVID-19. The Middle age group had more emotional problems.