Nursing Diagnoses and Functional Health Patterns in Patients Receiving External Radiation Therapy: Cancer of the Head and Neck

A descriptive study using clinical methods was conducted to identify and describe core and site-specific symptoms reported by 15 patients with canter of the head or neck who received external radiation therapy. A 45-item Radiation Symptom Scale (RSS) was designed by the investigators for this study. Symptoms identified by patients with a mean occurrence of at least “sometimes” were considered potential defining characteristics and were submitted to a panel of experts for identification of nursing diagnoses. Eighteen nursing diagnoses with their associated defining characteristics were identified and classified within eight Functional Health Patterns. Half of the nursing diagnoses were formulated within the Nutritional-Metabolic and Activity-Exercise health patterns. Four of the health patterns were primarily physiologic; four were primarily psychologic-behavioral. Results of the study describe the nursing needs of patients who receive radiotherapy to the head and neck and are formulated within a nursing diagnosis/Functional Health Pattern framework. These findings have implications for nursing assessment, nursing interventions, and evaluation of patient outcomes, and findings provide a beginning empiric basis for identifying nursing diagnoses and their associated defining characteristics for cancer patients who receive external radiation therapy.