Emi John Prince
Institute of Health and Management,Australia
Title: The Role of Nurses in improving the quality of life assessment in breast cancer
Biography
Biography: Emi John Prince
Abstract
It is difficult to measure and define the quality of life. Quality of life in patients with breast cancer is an important outcome. The quality of life data provided scientific evidence for clinical decision-making and conveyed helpful information concerning breast cancer patients' Although quality of life assessments have been employed successfully in descriptive and evaluative studies in oncology, their use in cancer clinical trials has, to date, been limited.As part of a study on quality of life in breast cancer patients, an extensive literature search was carried out using MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Science Citation Index (ISI), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), the PsycINFO, the Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), and Global Health databases. The intention was to review all full publications that have been appeared in English language biomedical journals between 1974 and 20013.
The use of proxy raters of patients' quality of life has been suggested as a means of facilitating the factoring of quality-of-life considerations explicitly into the medical decision-making process and of resolving the problem of missing data in longitudinal quality-of-life investigations.
The paper also concluded that it is not only the study of quality of life in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients that is necessary; studying quality of life in long-term survivors is equally important
References
· Husson O, Mols F, van de Poll-Franse LV. The relation between information provision and health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression among cancer survivors: a systematic review. Ann Oncol. 2011;22:761–72.Leap ,N., 2009. Woman-centered or women centered care: does it matter? British Journal of Midwifery 17(1), 12-16.
· Cornish D, Holterhues C, van de Poll-Franse LV, Coebergh JW, Nijsten T. A systematic review of health-related quality of life in cutaneous melanoma. Ann Oncol. 2009;20(6):51–8..