Cancer

Cancer is associated with a wide range of signs and symptoms that vary based on cancer type. The nursing process is an effective tool used in healthcare organizations to provide client-centered care as a systematic guide or problem-solving method. A typical nursing process comprises five steps, assessment, planning, diagnosis, evaluation, and implementation. The first step in the nursing process is an assessment which involves the application of critical thinking skills in the collection and analysis of data when a client checks in at the Emergency Department (Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2020). The purpose of this paper is to discuss how nurses utilize the nursing process to determine individual health care needs and provide the most appropriate personalized care.

Diagnosis and staging of Cancer

A cancer diagnosis is predictable if a symptom that takes time to vanish or the results from a screening test suggests cancer. The doctor must employ critical skills to determine whether observed symptoms are due to cancer or a different disease or health complication by using specific tests and procedures to tell the signs associate with cancer. Nursing diagnosis is the second step in the nursing process, in which a nurse makes a clinical judgment about a client’s response to a potential or actual health needs or conditions. A nurse uses diagnosis to determine whether the patient is experiencing pain and other problems associated with the pain, such as poor nutrition, conflict within the family, and anxiety, or has a risk of certain complications. A nurse bases a patient’s treatment plan on the diagnosis.

On the other hand, cancer staging refers to the determining the level of spread of cancer or the size of a tumor and classifying it accordingly. A doctor determines the stage of cancer by ordering lab tests, x-rays, and other procedures or tests. Cancer staging helps a doctor understand the seriousness of a cancer and the patient’s chances of survival, determine the most appropriate treatment plan, and identify clinical trials to employ as possible treatment options for. The stage given to cancer diagnosis becomes its reference in subsequent steps in the nursing process (Azevedo et al. 2019). Therefore, the stage remains the same despite either adding more information about the changes that occur on the cancer overtime or the cancer changes.

Several staging systems can stage either stage a specific cancer or different types of cancer. However, most staging systems rely on the information on various factors, including the location of cancer in the body, tumor size and cell type, the status of cancer spreading to neighboring lymph nodes or other body parts, and the tumor grade. The most widely used staging system used in most medical centers and hospitals is the TNM staging system. The TNM staging system stages a wide range of cancers. Some of the cancers with specific staging systems include spinal cord, blood, and brain cancers.

The TNM staging system has three main components. The T refers to the extent and size of the primary tumor, N is the adjacent lymph nodes with cancer cells, while M denotes the extent of a cancer’s metastasis. M indicates that the primary tumor has metastasized to other body parts. Cancer diagnosis and staging is critical in determining the type of treatment to implement (National Cancer Institute, 2021). The TNM helps classify many cancers into five less-detailed stages. At stage 0 cancer, abnormal cells present as carcinoma in situ and have not metastasized to nearby tissue. At stage I, stage II, and stage III, cancer has developed, and the higher the number of cancer cells, the larger the size of the tumor, which also corresponds to the farther it has spread to adjacent tissues.

Cancer Complications

Tumor lysis syndrome is a cancer complication that occurs when malignant cells undergo rapid lysis. It occurs in patients with high growth capacity or high tumor burden. The side effects of this oncologic emergency include fatal renal, neurologic, and cardiac complications. Prophylactic treatment reduce the psychological and physical effects may include allopurinol to prevent the formation of uric acid. Diuretics may also prevent volume overload while Kaexylate eliminates potassium.

Septic Shock refers to sepsis induced hypotension and organ perfusion abnormalities. It lead to irreversible multiorgan dysfunction syndrome and death. Prevention through low bacterial diet comprising vegetables, fresh fruits, and flowers, avoidance of crowds, and meticulous handwashing are necessary. Another common cancer complication is malignant Pleural effusion is a cancer related complication that refers to abnormal fluid accumulation in the pleural cavity. The increased pleural fluid reduces the respiratory function by decreasing lung volume, restricting lung expansion, and altering gas exchange. To lessen its effects, use of treatment modalities such as radiation therapy, chemical sclerosing is a widely used intervention that prevents further fluid accumulation.

Hypersensitivity reaction (anaphylaxis) is an oncology complication due occurring due to immunologic response to foreign antigens, particularly chemotherapy. Common side effects include dyspnea, wheezing, dizziness, flushing, agitation, urticarial, and hypotension. Common interventions to reduce the reaction include corticosteroid regimens and receptor antagonists of cimetidine and diphenhydramine. There is also cardiac tamponade, a structural emergency associated with oncologic complication which results from the compression of the heart due to fluid accumulation within the pericardium. It leads to reduction of coronary artery flow which eventually develops into myocardial ischemia. Compensatory mechanisms include activation of vasoconstriction and increased heart rate. Other side effects include pleuritic chest pain and fever. The immediate treatment intervention is the removal of pericardial fluid which relieves impeding circulatory collapse. Although pericardiocentesis effectively relieves symptoms and signs, fluid re-accumulates within 24 to 48 hours.

Factors contribute to the yearly incidence and mortality rates of various cancers in Americans

Although there are many forms of cancer in America, there are four that cost the life of about 300,000 Americans die every year, and include breast, lung, prostate, and colon/rectum. Besides sex, there are other factors that contribute to the yearly mortality and incidence of cancer in America. A recent report indicates that smoking and passive smoking among both men and women causes between 80-90 percent of all new lung cancer cases in the country. The report indicated that there is higher incidence of black men diagnose and die due to lung cancer is higher than any other group, although, on average, they are less cigarette smokers. Similarly African American women are more vulnerable to breast cancer than other groups. The group has the rate mortality rate while Asian Americans reported the lowest rate. Ashkenazi Jewish descent area among the groups with the highest incidence and mortality and incidence rates of lung cancer.

Age is a common factor contributing to high mortality and incidence rates especially in lung, prostate, breast, and colorectal cancers. The American Cancer Society (ACS) targets screening of older individuals aged 40 years and above. According to the ACS, the average age of first diagnosis for lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers include 70, 61, 66, and 68 respectively. Therefore, the key factors contributing to high mortality and incident rates based on the four cancers include, race and ethnic background, age, gender, smoking and passive smoking.

Explain how the American Cancer Society (ACS) might provide education and support

ACS conducts surveys comprising procedures and processes focused on reducing incidence and mortality rates of cancers in America, especially the four cancers with the highest rates. The basis of the education ACS provides include accurate and relevant demographic and statistical data, identification of risk factors, early screening/detection, identification of appropriate treatment, and research. Using the ACS demographic and statistical data as basis for providing appropriate education is significant in providing compassionate and thorough education for both individual and populations in America. Some of the crucial demographic data include incidence rate based on sex, average age individuals first diagnosed, and notable facts (Public Health, 2019).

Utilization of the nursing process for safe and effective care for cancer patients across the life span

Cancer is a life-threatening disease hence require effective and safe care which is attainable through the nursing process. The patient should experience patient-focused care from the assessment step to the evaluation step of the nursing process. At the assessment step, gathering all the information, including that regarding the patient’s body, spirit, mind, socioeconomic background, environment, and culture is critical to achieve safe and effective care of the patient. In the second step, diagnosis, depends on the health history of the patient collected in the assessment. A nurse uses the information to decide the most appropriate, safe, and effective nursing diagnosis. The nurse chooses either general purpose TNM staging system or a more specific staging system to stage the cancer if detected.

In the planning stage, the nurse uses the successful diagnosis of the patient’s cancer problem to set measures, achievable, and time-limited short- and long-term goals for the patient. The plan comprises of appropriate, effective, safe, and holistic nursing interventions depending on the stage of the diagnosed cancer. The fourth stage is the implementation of the identified interventions based on the care plan or outcomes. The nurse implements the interventions by ensuring that the patient receives the correct medications, accurate prescriptions, appropriate patient education in a manner that meets the patient’s satisfaction in terms of

alleviating the symptoms and signs of the disease, as well as ensure they are in harmony with his spirit, mind, socioeconomic background, environment, and culture. The nurse should also prepare the patient for discharge by meeting all the discharge needs. The evaluation step involves evaluating the effectiveness and status of the patient’s nursing care. Although this is the last step in the nursing process, it is implemented continuously throughout the patient’s treatment schedule and modifications made where necessary.

The liberal arts and sciences have increasingly become recognized in the nursing curriculum as an educational discipline necessary to contribute to the foundation of nursing knowledge. Nursing scholars believe that the educational discipline undergirds a nurse student’s creativity, holistic, and critical thinking. Mathematics, science, as well as physical and social sciences studies are increasingly integrated in the nursing curriculum of many healthcare and nursing institutions as the acknowledgement of their importance increases. Nursing students identify liberal arts as a discipline that improves their communication skills, helps them to think globally, improve their personality and human selves, make decisions, and navigate diversity. Further, mathematics is a common communication language between doctors and nurses in all healthcare facilities. The prescribing doctor uses mathematical language in a patient’s medical prescription and sends it to a pharmacist who interprets and provides the required medicine. The patient’s caregiver and nurses can interpret the mathematically written prescription to administer the medicines to the patient as the doctor prescribed.

In conclusion, the Paper discusses the nurses’ utilization of the nursing process, a systematic problem-solving method in healthcare, to determine the healthcare the health care needs of a cancer patient. It discusses the diagnosis process in the context of the nursing process and the staging of cancer. The discussion also discusses five cancer complications, such as the tumor lysis syndrome, their side effects, and interventions to reduce physiological and physical effects. The paper also underscored the factors associate with yearly mortality and incidence rates of cancer in America and how ACS might promote cancer patient care by providing support and education. Further, it provides an analysis of the ways nurses can utilize the nursing process to provide effective and safe care for cancer patients, and focused on patient-focused and holistic care. Lastly, the discussion alluded to the importance of liberal arts and sciences as a core foundation in the development of nursing skills such as communication and ability to navigate diversity.

 

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