Applicable Nursing Theory Utilized
For current project, Jean Watson’s theory of human caring seems suitable. The theory’s principles incorporate such values as spiritual care, equality, and kindness (Watson, 2013). Therefore, the theory is closely associated with the suggested interventions since relieving pain and eliminating adverse outcomes of treatment is one of the most humanistic objectives of nursing. The project focuses on the implementation of cost-free interventions that could help reduce nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients.
Watson’s theory incorporates the elements of nursing that are aimed at making patients’ lives more comfortable and helping them feel fewer negative consequences of the disease or its side effects. The theory delineates ten caritas processes with the help of which Watson explains her understanding of caring (Jesse & Alligood, 2014).
The core features of these processes include practicing kindness and sympathy, preserving humanistic values, developing caring and benevolent relations, encouraging patients to express their positive and negative emotions, stimulating them to be hopeful about their condition, appreciating patients’ dignity, and creating a healing atmosphere that would give patients faith in positive outcomes (Sitzman & Watson, 2014). These principles are particularly beneficial for the suggested project. Cancer patients who have to cope not only with the disease but also with painful side effects need much more support and encouragement than people with other health conditions.
Watson’s theory is useful for the suggested interventions as it encourages nurses to be extremely caring and mindful. Cancer patients have many problems concerning health, side effects of treatment, and expenses that are frequently too high for people to cover.
Therefore, cost-free methods of preventing or limiting nausea and vomiting in combination with Watson’s theory of human caring will ensure the most beneficial outcomes for patients, their families, and nursing personnel. Patients will feel much better and will not need to worry about additional expenses. Their families will be happy due to a possibility of seeing their close people in a better condition. Nurses will gain positive experience in relieving some serious symptoms that may be employed in the future and improve the lives of many more people. Watson’s theory of human caring is aimed at helping people to manage their physical and psychological health problems by developing a positive disposition and belief in themselves.
Proposed Implementation Plan with Outcome Measures
Implementation Plan
The implementation plan of the intervention involving ginger presupposes several stages: pre-experimental, experimental, and post-experimental. During each of the stages, patients’ symptoms will be checked with the aim of further comparison and analysis. At the pre-experimental stage, patients will be asked about their organism’s reaction to chemotherapy. Those who report nausea and vomiting as the most frequent reaction will be chosen for the second stage.
The study will be randomized to achieve the most unbiased outcomes and the most precise results. The patients will be chosen from three to five hospitals within the area. Such geographical restriction will enable nurse practitioners to control all of the participants both within the hospitals and after discharge. The initial step of the experimental stage will involve the division of patients into two groups: experimental and control.
The control group will be receiving placebo treatment whereas the experimental group will be receiving ginger. This phase will last for ten months in order to include several periods of chemotherapy in each patient. Those individuals who will show an allergic reaction to treatment will be withdrawn from the study. At the final, post-experimental, stage, changes in patients’ symptoms will be noted and analyzed.
A similar plan is suggested for acupressure intervention. However, in this case, there will be no placebo treatment. The experimental group will be administered this method of treatment while the control group will not receive any. At the post-experimental stage, it will be possible to compare the results of the intervention.
Outcome Measures
The outcome measures for the suggested interventions are concerned with the reduction of such negative side effects of chemotherapy in cancer patients as vomiting and nausea. It is expected that those patients who receive ginger treatment and are administered acupressure will show much better results as compared to the patients in control groups. Many research studies indicate positive results of treatment with the help of ginger (Ryan et al., 2012). As it is shown in Figure 1, different doses of ginger can induce considerable changes in nausea.
Potential Barriers to Plan Implementation and Ways of Overcoming Them
One of the obstacles to the implementation of the suggested plan is allergy to ginger. If a person has an allergic reaction, he or she will not be able to take part in this cost-free intervention, and chances to eliminate nausea and vomiting in such patients will be low. However, the other type of intervention is suitable for such individuals. If the patient’s organism cannot accept ginger, the method of acupressure combined with counseling may be employed. Also, there is a rather low possibility of patients having such an allergic reaction, which makes the barrier to the intervention’s implementation rather insignificant.
The second problem in patients’ or their families’ refusal from participating in the interventions. Some people might have too rigid and old-fashioned worldview and will not allow nurses to educate them on the new methods that have not gained enough popularity or reliability yet. To cope with this obstacle, a nurse needs to demonstrate excellent communication and persuasive skills. It is necessary to explain to the patient that the outcomes are highly possible to be beneficial while participation in an intervention does not presuppose any additional expenses or resources. In this case, it is mostly up to the nurse to make patients agree to participate in the intervention.
The third potential barrier is insufficient knowledge of nurses about the proposed interventions and their inability to administer acupressure. The seriousness of this issue is associated with the fact that the sooner the nurses learn how to perform the interventions, the more patients will receive substantial help aimed at relieving them from such adverse side effects of chemotherapy as nausea and vomiting. To overcome this obstacle, it is necessary to organize education for nurses so as to eliminate the areas unknown for them. Learning about administering daily doses of ginger is an easier task if compared to acquiring the basics of acupressure.
Therefore, it will be necessary to come up with educational programs for nurses in order to teach them about acupressure. The acquired knowledge will be used for two purposes. Firstly, the nurses will administer this method of reducing nausea and vomiting to the patients. Secondly, they will educate the patients’ family members or caregivers about acupressure so that they could administer it to the patients at home.
References
Jesse, E., & Alligood, M, R. (2014). Jean Watson: Watson’s philosophy and theory of transpersonal caring. In M. R. Alligood (Ed.), Nursing theorists and their work (8th ed.) (pp. 79-97). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Ryan, J. L., Heckler, C. E., Roscoe, J. A., Dakhil, S. R., Kirshner, J., Flynn, P. J., … Morrow, G. R. (2012). Ginger (Zingiber officinale) reduces acute chemotherapy-induced nausea: A URCC CCOP study of 576 patients. Support Care Cancer, 20(7), 1479-1489.
Sitzman, K., & Watson, J. (2014). Caring science, mindful practice: Implementing Watson’s human caring theory. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Watson, J. (2013). The theory of human caring: Retrospective and prospective. In Smith, M. C., Turkel, M. C., & Wolf, Z. R. (Eds.), Caring in nursing classics: An essential resource (pp. 237-241). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
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