Postoperative nursing care of patients after breast cancer surgery

SUMMARY Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine Bachelor of Nursing Program POSTOPERATIVE NURSING CARE OF PATIENTS AFTER BREAST CANCER SURGERY Nursing Bachelor's thesis The Author: student Anželika Moločko, IV year student of Bachelor degree program in nursing at Vilnius University. Work Leader: Lector dr. Rasa Stundžienė, Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine Department of Nursing and Fundamentals of Internal Medicine. 12/05/2017, Vilnius Work size: 94 pages. Keywords: Breast cancer, postoperative nursing care, patients’ opinion. The aim of research work: To find out the postoperative nursing care of patients after breast cancer surgery. Tasks of work: 1.To identify the major problems in nursing of patients after breast cancer surgery in the early and late postoperative period. 2.To figure out the actions most frequently performed by nurses caring for patients after breast cancer surgery, in the early and late postoperative period. 3.To learn the opinions of patients after breast cancer surgery about the care given to them after surgery. Materials and methods. A group of persons under investigation was formed of women who have undergone breast cancer surgery hospitalized in the National Cancer Institute. The following 3 methods were used for the survey: analysis of medical documents, monitoring (a monitoring protocol drawn up by the author) and questionnaire (a survey questionnaire consisting of 17 questions drawn up by the author). On receipt of permission from the National Cancer Institute Director, a monitoring and survey took place in the period November 2016–February 2017. A total of 60 respondents who have been observed 2 times (in early and late postoperative period) took part in the survey. Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Office Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS Statistics 22 statistical analysis programs. Results. The average age of the respondents was 58.6±11.9 years. The biggest part of the respondents consisted of employed persons 34 (56.7 percent) and persons having a higher/vocational education 22 (36.7 percent). Breast-conserving surgery 32 (53.3 percent) has been carried out a little more than breast removal surgery 28 (46.7 percent). Administration of analgesics depended on the pain intensity (p<0.05). Knowledge given to the respondents about purchase of breast prostheses depended on the nature of the surgery (p