Cancer Care
The nursing process is a tool that puts knowledge into practice. By utilizing this systematic problem-solving method, nurses can determine the health care needs of an individual and provide personalized care.
Write a paper (1,750-2,000 words) on cancer and approach to care based on the utilization of the nursing process. Include the following in your paper:
Describe the diagnosis and staging of cancer.
Describe at least three complications of cancer, the side effects of treatment, and methods to lessen physical and psychological effects.
Discuss what factors contribute to the yearly incidence and mortality rates of various cancers in Americans.
Explain how the American Cancer Society (ACS) might provide education and support. What ACS services would you recommend and why?
Explain how the nursing process is utilized to provide safe and effective care for cancer patients across the life span. Your explanation should include each of the five phases and demonstrate the delivery of holistic and patient-focused care.
Discuss how undergraduate education in liberal arts and science studies contributes to the foundation of nursing knowledge and prepares nurses to work with patients utilizing the nursing process. Consider mathematics, social and physical sciences, and science studies as an interdisciplinary research area.
You are required to cite to a minimum of four sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and relevant to nursing practice.
Sample Answer
Cancer Care
Cancer has been stated to be one of the chronic diseases killing people across the globe. There are various types of cancer, depending on the body organs or systems affected and thus the high prevalence of cancer. According to CDC (2018), 436 people have new cancer cases, and 149 people die of cancer in every 100,000 people in the United States. This data indicates that cancer is a serious disease contributing to health complications and low quality of life. But, what is cancer? The National Cancer Institute (2021), cancer is a disease in which some of the body cells grow uncontrollably, multiplying and spreading to the other parts of the body. Sometimes, the damaged or abnormal grow and multiply, which they should not. The outgrown cells form tumors that lump body tissues. This paper will describe cancer diagnosis, its complications, risk factors, and the treatment procedures available in controlling or suppressing the disease.
Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer
Cancer is a disease like any other, and thus the affected person shows some signs and symptoms that can be associated with the disease. Even though the symptoms may be similar to those of other diseases, the signs and symptoms are closely associated with the development and chronicity of cancer. Brown (2019) identifies some of the common symptoms of cancer such as general body fatigue that remains persistent even on resting, weight loss with an unknown reason, problems in eating such as stomach fullness or having trouble when swallowing, swollen lumps on different parts of the body, excruciating pain whose cause is not known, cough, bleeding, and change of the bowel habits. There are more common symptoms of cancer, but mostly differ which the chronically affected body part.
Apart from the physical symptoms, clinical diagnosis should enhance the diagnosis process of cancer, making conclusions from the other differential diseases. The diagnosis tools and methods are used depending on the location of the issue within the body. The first strategy of diagnosing cancer cells is through imaging technology that involves ultrasound, CT scans, MRI, and X-ray. The imaging technology identifies the abnormal tumors growing within specific parts of the body. The MRIs are effective in establishing if the tumor is cancer or not. Cancerous tumors are different from benign tumors in that they grow and spread (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 2019). Blood tests are also used in establishing cancer infections. A complete blood count can be used to detect leukemia and lymphoma, the presence of immunoglobulins, and the circulating tumor cells in the blood.
There are several stages of cancer infection and development. The staging of cancer is done through the TNM system standing for tumor, nodes, and metastasis. The stages are used by a physician to tell where the cancer is located, its size, the rate of growth, and if it is close to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body. At the tumor (T) staging description shows the extent to which the tumor has grown. TX can be used indicate a tumor that cannot be measured, T0 indicates a tumor that cannot be found, and T1-T4 indicates an increasing size in tumor. The regional lymph nodes (N) indicates the extent of spreading. TX shows that nearby lymph nodes cannot be measured, NO indicates that there is no cancer near the lymph nodes, and N1-N3 indicates an extensive spread of cancer to the nearby nodes. Distance metastasis (M) indicates the spread of cancer to the other parts of the body. MX shows that the spread is not measurable, M0 shows that cancer has not spread to other body parts, and M1 shows that cancer has spread to the rest of body parts.
The imaging technology is commonly used to determine the cancer stages through the size of the tumors and how spread it is. There are five main stages of cancer development depending on the size and chronicity of the infection. Stage 0 is the first stage where there is no cancer but only abnormal cells with a high potential of becoming cancer. This stage is also known as carcinoma in situ indicating that it is a precancerous stage, as the cancer cells are about to form. Stage I is associated with a small infection in only one area. In this stage, the tumor is small and within the organ of development. This is an early stage of cancer development. Stage II and III indicate that cancer has grown and spread to the nearby tissues or lymph nodes. At stage II, the cancer has started spreading to the neighboring tissues while at stage III, the cancer tumor has grown larger and has spread to other neighboring organs. At stage IV, cancer has already spread into the other parts of the body and is thus known as metastatic or advanced cancer. The metastatic cancer is usually spread away from the organs where it started to the rest of the body. The cancerous cells are spread throughout the body through the bloodstream and thus rarely controllable.
