Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Meaning Of Parenteral Hydration To Family Caregivers And Patients With Advanced Cancer Receiving Hospice Care., Marlene Z. Cohen, Isabel Torres-Vigil, Beth E. Burbach, Allison De La Rosa, Eduardo Bruera

Journal Articles: College of Nursing

CONTEXT: In the U.S., patients with advanced cancer who are dehydrated or have decreased oral intake almost always receive parenteral hydration in acute care facilities but rarely in the hospice setting.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the meaning of hydration for terminally ill cancer patients in home hospice care and for their primary caregivers.

METHODS: Phenomenological interviews were conducted at two time points with 85 patients and 84 caregivers enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial examining the efficacy of parenteral hydration in patients with advanced cancer receiving hospice care in the southern U.S. Transcripts were analyzed hermeneutically by the interdisciplinary research …

Values Of Sleep/Wake, Activity/Rest, Circadian Rhythms, And Fatigue Prior To Adjuvant Breast Cancer Chemotherapy., Ann M. Berger, Lynne A. Farr, Brett R. Kuhn, Patricia Fischer, Sangeeta Agrawal

Journal Articles: College of Nursing

Fatigue is the most prevalent and distressing symptom experienced by patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for early stage breast cancer. Higher fatigue levels have been related to sleep maintenance problems and low daytime activity in patients who have received chemotherapy, but knowledge describing these relationships prior to chemotherapy is sparse. The Piper Integrated Fatigue Model guided this study, which describes sleep/wake, activity/rest, circadian rhythms, and fatigue and how they interrelate in women with Stage I, II, or IIIA breast cancer during the 48 hours prior to the first adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. The present report describes these variables in 130 females, mean …