Patients with hemato-onco logical diseases and hierarchy of their needs during hospitalization

The subject of our work was the hierarchy of the needs of haemato-oncological patients during hospitalisation. We selected those patients who were due to undergo haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We set ourselves three goals: 1. To compare patient needs at the beginning of the transplant with those following the transplant. 2. To compile a hierarchy of the needs of haemato-oncological patients during hospitalisation. 3. To determine the modifications of nursing care induced by changing patient needs. We divided our work into a theoretical and a practical section. The theoretical section includes basic information relating to patient needs, the anatomy and physiology of haematopoiesis, haematological malignancies and the transplantation of haematopoietic stem cells. In the practical section, we seek the answers to the research questions, namely: Does the hierarchy of haemato-oncological patient needs change during hospitalisation? Can the needs which were not dominant before disease onset change into priority concerns? How does nursing care of haemato-oncological patients evolve during hospitalisation as a result of changing patient needs? In this section of the work, we discuss the results of our research. We used two qualitative research tools to obtain our data. First, the standardised interview method to acquire the necessary information from the patients. After evaluating the information thus obtained, we were able to answer the following research question: Does the hierarchy of haemato-oncological patient needs change during hospitalisation? The second method involved the observation of patients. This method was concerned, concealed and goal-targeted and was conducted during the first thirty days post-transplant at set intervals. We focused on seven areas relating to patient needs. After evaluation of the data thus acquired, we were able to answer the following two research questions: Can the needs, which were not dominant before disease onset, change into priority concerns? How does nursing care of haemato-oncological patients evolve during the transplant as a result of changing patient needs? Based on the results of this research, we showed that uncovering the hierarchy of haemato-oncological patient needs is a significant nursing problem and fulfilment of these needs remains quite difficult, even today. The uncovered changes in this hierarchy of needs should help nurses better comprehend the problems relating to haemato-oncological patients, and help them adapt and thus improve the quality of nursing care under these specific conditions. We would like to use the results of our research to develop a nursing standard entitled: Nursing care for patients with haemato-oncological disease