Support for women with breast cancer, and for the district and hospital nurses involved : an intervention study

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate breast cancer patients’ experiences of their illness and of traditional nursing care (TNC) or supportive nursing care (SNC) respectively, as well as nurses' experiences of support and of caring for cancer patients. An intervention including extended co-operation between the surgical ward and primary health care, shorter waiting times, and changed routines concerning the information about the diagnosis, as well as training and systematic clinical supervision for the nurses, was implemented. Newly diagnosed breast cancer patients (n=47) from two county councils in the south-east of Sweden were interviewed (IV, V). Thirty-four of them completed scales about well-being, burnout, hopelessness, anxiety and depression (VII). The women who had TNC reported lack of professional support during the initial phase of the disease and suggested changes in the care similar to those implemented in the SNC. In the SNC group the women expressed feelings of safety and security after the professional support and the organizational changes in the care. There were significantly more single women and women who had had breast conserving surgery in the SNC group than in the TNC (VII). The hopelessness scores in the SNC group were significantly higher than in the TNC group.Thirty-nine district nurses (DNs) were interviewed at baseline (I), and thirty-three of them completed scales about burnout, empathy, and sense of coherence (SOC) before and after systematic clinical supervision (VI). Twenty-three of the 39 DNs, as well as 9 hospital nurses (HNs) who participated in the clinical supervision, were interviewed about their experiences of this intervention (III). Twenty-nine tape-recorded supervision sessions in three groups of DNs (n=23) were analysed (II). Baseline interviews and analyses of the content of the supervisory sessions strongly emphasized that DNs experienced problems in the home care of seriously ill cancer patients. Deep human contacts were a source of both strain and enrichment. The clinical supervision was said to provide relief from undesirable thoughts and feelings, confirmation of themselves both as individuals and in their professional role, a broader and deeper knowledge and increased self-confidence. There were no significant differences in the burnout, empathy, and SOC scores between the supervisory group (n=21) and a comparison group (n=12) at the first and second measures, nor over time within the groups. There were some correlations between these phenomena and the Karolinska scales of personality, as well as cor­relations between burnout, empathy and SOC.The groups of women were not entirely similar as regards demographic and medical characteristics, and the sample size of patients and nurses was small. It is obvious that patients in the TNC missed those factors that were implemented in the SNC, at the same time the latter women expressed hopelessness more often than those who had received TNC. This result may be due to the fact that support from nurses had made the women more prepared to express their feelings, that support had not been provided to an adequate extent or in the right way, or that the applied scales were not appropriate. The finding that the nurses experienced the clinical supervision as very positive but that, despite this, there were no significant differences in attitudes measured by scales within or between the groups, can be interpreted in a similar way. Consequently, further research is needed to judge the effects of intervention. The study has, above all, produced qualitative descriptions of patients' experiences of the nursing care after discharge from hospital, and of DNs’ experiences of the care of cancer patients in their homes, and of systematic clinical supervision.