Early Palliative Care in Advanced Gastrointestinal Cancer

Download or read book Early Palliative Care in Advanced Gastrointestinal Cancer written by Kimberlee B. Slusher and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the American Cancer Society (2019) there will be approximately 340,000 new GI cancer diagnoses in 2020. Unfortunately, many of these patients will have advanced or metastatic cancer at diagnosis. Patients with advanced GI cancers have multiple complex symptoms secondary to their disease process, which are difficult to manage and control. Kassin et al. (2012), found that over one half of advanced GI cancer patients are often re-admitted, over and over, with uncontrolled GI symptoms, complications, and surgical infections. This process of repeated readmissions can be very stressful for the patient and their family members mentally, emotionally, and financially. Multiple studies have been conducted to determine if implementing early palliative care (EPC) in advanced GI cancers improves patients' quality of life (QoL) with strong evidence validating that introducing palliative care at diagnosis of terminal GI cancers has been effective in improving patients' QoL. This DNP project focused on advanced GI cancer patients at an urban hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio and providing EPC at diagnosis during October 2019 through January 2020. The results of this DNP project did support the evidence that EPC can decrease patient's symptoms and increase their QoL. The project revealed symptoms of appetite and fatigue were significantly reduced, as well as clinical decrease of multiple other symptoms, which indicates a correlation between EPC and improved QoL. These findings indicate the need for dissemination of the project's results and a trial of the project in other hospitals in the organization. Further dissemination to include publication and presentation at national conferences to enhance providers knowledge of EPC and to promote improved patient outcomes.