Assessing and Knowing the Person with Cancer

Chapter 8: Assessing and Knowing the Person with Cancer 

Overview:

• The importance of nurse-patient relationships are discussed
• A graph is added to aid explanation
• An explanation of how vital ‘knowing the patient as a person’ is
• Explanation of how to conduct initial assessment

Description:

This chapter has two central concepts. One is of knowing each individual patient - what they value, how they cope, their physical reactions, and who is important to them. The other concept looks at the ‘normal’; how novice nurses deal with common responses to a situation, and how, with more experience and expertise, nurses are able to comprehend and care for a wider range of patient responses. These two concepts are also applied to nursing assessment of cancer patients.

Topics:

• The nurse–patient relationship
• Application to practice
• Knowing the patient as a person
• In-depth knowledge of the patient’s pattern of responses
  • Initial Assessment
• References

Speaker / Author:

Beverleigh Quested
Diploma of Applied Science (Nursing), Bachelor of Nursing, Outcome Manager for the Haematology – Bone Marrow Transplant Unit Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia.

Beverleigh Quested graduated from Sturt College of Advanced Education in South Australia in 1981 with a Diploma of Applied Science (Nursing). She has since gained a Bachelor of Nursing and is currently undertaking a Master of Nursing (Advanced Practice) at the University of South Australia. In 1983 Beverleigh completed the post-certificate course in oncological nursing at the Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Beverleigh has worked in oncology units in Brisbane, London and Adelaide since 1981, with most of her clinical experience on a Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. In 1997 she was the course coordinator for the Graduate Diploma in Oncology Nursing offered by The Department of Clinical Nursing at The University of Adelaide in South Australia.

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