Effect of multidisciplinary collaborative continuous nursing on the psychological state and quality of life of patients with cervical cancer

Am J Transl Res. 2021 Jun 15;13(6):6654-6661. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the effect of multidisciplinary collaborative continuous nursing on the psychological state and quality of life of cervical cancer patients.

Methods: A total of 132 patients with cervical cancer who were hospitalized in our hospital were selected as the research subjects, and they were randomized into the observation group (n=66) and the control group (n=66). The control group was given regular continuous nursing, while the observation group was given three-month multidisciplinary collaborative continuous nursing. It was conducted through WeChat, telephone follow-up, face-to-face consultation and lectures, giving guidance on diet, medication, pain control, psychological health, self-care, review time, recognition and processing of postoperative complications, daily activities, social behaviors and so on. Patients' anxiety, depression, quality of life, cancer-related fatigue, complication incidence, and sleep quality were compared between the two groups.

Results: Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were applied for evaluation. The anxiety and depression scores of patients in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (both P<0.001). The scores on physical functioning, general health, social role functioning, emotional role functioning, and mental health, in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (all P<0.01). Compared with patients in the control group, those in the observation group had higher scores on behavioral/severity, affective meaning, sensory and cognition/mood (all P<0.001). Patients in the observation group had lower complication incidence of postoperative nausea, abdominal pain, wound infection and intestinal obstruction (P<0.05). Besides, the sleep quality scores of patients in the observation group were also lower than those in the control group (all P<0.001).

Conclusion: The application of multidisciplinary collaborative continuous nursing for patients with cervical cancer is effective. It can improve patients' depression, anxiety, quality of life, cancer-related fatigue, sleep quality, and reduce the incidence of complications. Therefore, it is worthy of clinical application and promotion.

Keywords: Cervical cancer; continuous nursing; multidisciplinary collaboration; psychological state; quality of life.