MST-School of Nursing

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Browsing MST-School of Nursing by Subject "Cancer Patients"

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    Professional Quality of Life among Nurses Caring for Cancer Patients at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Gikonyo, Catherine. W.; Lister Onsongo; James O. Ogutu
    Chronic exposure to stressful situations at the workplace has been associated with health care workers low quality of life particularly if they have no adequate coping strategies in place. The compassion fatigue and burnout syndrome, affects many healthcare workers which in turn impact negatively on the quality of care given to patients. The professional quality of life (Compassion fatigue, burnout and compassion satisfaction) has been focused extensively in developed countries, however few studies have explored this concepts among oncology nurses regionally. The study aimed at assessing the level of professional quality of life (compassion fatigue, burnout and compassion satisfaction) among nurses caring for cancer patients at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), identify their determinants and statistical relationships between variables. The study adopted a correlation quantitative design on the target populations at KNH oncology clinic/units sample size of 90 participants. The Professional Quality of Life Version -V (ProQoL-5) and Brief COPE inventory self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Stratified and simple random sampling was used to select the study participants from different units. Pretesting of the study tool was done at MTRH to ascertain reliability and validity of the tool. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson r, and stepwise regression analysis. Ethical approval was sort from Kenyatta University, Kenyatta National Hospital/University of Nairobi Ethics and Research Committee (KNH/UON ERC) and KNH medical research center. The findings revealed a mean score for compassion satisfaction 42+4.76, burnout 33±4.7 and compassion fatigue 27±8.7. There was a statistical significant difference in the levels of ProQoL based some demographic factors and personal factors. A negative relationship between compassion satisfaction with exposure to antineoplastic agents, workload and insufficient preparation but positively correlated with burnout and compassion fatigue. The predicting factors for all subscales of ProQoL was staff patient ratio. The participants had high compassion satisfaction levels despite poor staff patient ratio. Good interpersonal relationship and personal resilience strategies promote compassion satisfaction and reduction of burnout and compassion fatigue levels. The study recommends the hospitals to improve nurse patient ratio, Work force empowerment of oncology health care workers, bereavement and Mentorship programs to help nurses deal with unresolved grief associated with oncology care. A national wide similar mixed study with a large sample is highly recommended.
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    Quality Of Life for Family Caregivers to Cancer Patients in Kenyatta National Hospital Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Mwangi, Samuel N.; Lister Onsongo; James Ogutu
    Quality of life (QoL) among cancer patient caregivers is significantly affected by characteristics such as age, educational level, economics, and geographical setting during the care provision. Objective: To explore the factors associated with QoL among family caregivers (FCG’s) of cancer patients in Kenya. Methodology: This was a correlational study conducted at Kenyatta National Hospital, which is the largest teaching and referral hospital in Kenya. The study enrolled 164 cancer patient family caregivers. The QoL (Family Version) was used to measure Quality of Life. Data collection was done using interviewer-administered questionnaires. A student t-test and Pearson chi-square were used to determine the association between personal, social and disease characteristics and family caregiver quality of life. Results: The average mean score of family caregiver QoL was 55.8 (SD±10.12) percent which is lower than in other countries. Conclusion: There was a significant association with family caregiver quality of life (QoL) and level of education, relationship to the patient, caregivers' ability to carry out normal activities, and caregiver knowledge of the stage of cancer
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    Symptom Burden and Quality of Life in Cancer Patients at Kenyatta National Hospital Nairobi City County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2022) Soita, Phillip; Lister Onsongo; Elizabeth Ambani
    Background: Cancer is highly ranked as a cause of morbidity and mortality globally with an estimated 9.3 million new diagnoses made in 2020 with a projected increase to 47,000 new cancer cases and 32,987 cancer deaths in Kenya. Cancer related symptoms are caused by the disease itself or the ongoing treatment, however factors like age, gender, and concurrent diseases may also influence the general symptom experience. Despite the fact that these symptoms affect the QoL of these patients, there is little being done to address this effect on the QoL. Therefore the effect of disease related burden on the QoL among the malignancy patients with these unique variables in view is an important area of study.Objective: To assess the disease related symptom burden and the QoL among cancer patients in Kenyatta National Hospital. Methodology: Descriptive, correlational study with 168 cancer patients as participants recruited through simple random sampling. Self-administered and interviewer administered questionnaires were used in the study. The research was carried out in the oncology unit of Kenyatta National Hospital targeting adult patients that are undergoing cancer treatment. Statistical program for social scientists (SPSS) version 25.00 was used to carry out data analysis and presented using graphs, tables and chats. Results: A total of 166 participants participated in the study. The overall QoL score was at 70.28. Cancer type(p=0.02), treatment period, treatment type(p=0.009),level(p=0.012), income(p=0.011) and marital status (0.039) were the key factors that affect the QoL among the study patients with symptom burden score(p=0.0001) and type of treatment p=0.035) being the main predictors of QoL.Conclusion and recommendation: Cancer and its treatment poses a risk and great symptom burden to these patients if not fully addressed. Its therefore essential to adopt a QoL assessment tool to be used by care givers to address specific patient needs, health care workers to provide relevant information to all cancer patients under treatment on symptom severity and progress, health care policy makers to incorporate symptom assessment, palliative care management and training in the health care system management and training and ensure community or public education on the common cancer predictors and drafting the right messages to pass to the people in order to improve on their QoL during and after treatment