Yesilbalkan, O. U., Karadakovan, A., & Göker, E. (2009). The effectiveness of nursing education as an intervention to decrease fatigue in Turkish patients receiving chemotherapy. Oncology Nursing Forum, 36, E215–E222.
To determine whether a nurse-led educational intervention decreased the perception of fatigue in patients diagnosed with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers who were receiving chemotherapy for the first time and to determine if improvement in fatigue resulted in improvement in quality of life (QOL).
Patients received an individual educational intervention at baseline, on the tenth day after the first cycle of chemotherapy (T1), and 10 days after the second cycle (T2) based on the results of their fatigue assessments. The education program consisted of: one-to-one education, which consisted of training and counseling about fatigue assessment and management. It was delivered by the researcher. The intervention was designed to improve patients’ knowledge of causes of fatigue and to provide them with strategies to decrease severity, including self-monitoring of fatigue levels, advice on energy conservation, distraction, increasing mobility and activity, stress management, relaxation methods, and management of factors known to cause fatigue.
The study used a descriptive, quasiexperimental design.
Patients’ mean fatigue scores showed a statistically significant decrease, and their EORTC QLQ-C30 scores were better at T1 and T2 compared with baseline.
Nurse-led educational interventions have the potential to reduce fatigue in patients with GI cancers receiving chemotherapy for the first time.
The administration of chemotherapy should be preceded by a formal fatigue assessment and the provision of individually tailored educational interventions to reduce the severity of fatigue and improve QOL.