Therapeutic Effects of Nurse Telephone Follow-up for Lung Cancer Patients in Turkey.

BACKGROUND

Patients with lung cancer can encounter many difficulties as they adjust to the side effects of chemotherapy treatments.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to determine the therapeutic effects of nurse telephone follow-up for lung cancer patients.

METHODS

In this quasi-experimental study, the sample consisted of 60 patients with lung cancer assigned to an intervention group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 30). The control group participants were sequentially enrolled first and then the intervention group participants were enrolled. The data were collected using the Patient Information Form, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale, and the Functional Living Index-Cancer. The Nursing Care Guide was created by the nurse researchers' team and given to both the intervention and control groups. Telephone follow-up calls were conducted with intervention patients within the first week after their chemotherapy session. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Pearson χ, Fisher exact, Mann-Whitney U, and Friedman test and descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the data.

RESULTS

Patients in the intervention group demonstrated significantly better adjustment to the symptoms secondary to chemotherapy and higher social functioning quality of life scores compared with reported scores in the control group.

CONCLUSION

Nurse telephone follow-up can reduce chemotherapy-related symptoms for lung cancer patients and improve participants' social functioning.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nurse telephone follow-up is an acceptable and feasible form of patient contact and is a convenient and efficient way to offer patients the support and continuity of care they need.