Cancer pain is one of the most critical issues in cancer patients' nursing care and significantly impacts their treatment and quality of life. Nursing care for patients with cancer pain is a specialized nursing area that requires a holistic nursing ap...
Cancer pain is one of the most critical issues in cancer patients' nursing care and significantly impacts their treatment and quality of life. Nursing care for patients with cancer pain is a specialized nursing area that requires a holistic nursing approach. Nurses who care for patients with cancer pain must have specific competencies and expertise to provide appropriate care. Hence, nurses must honor the individuality of patients experiencing cancer pain and deliver nursing care using a person-centered care. While research on person-centered care has primarily focused on elderly care in nursing homes, there is limited research on person-centered care among general hospital nurses who provide theory-based care for patients with cancer pain. Therefore, this study aims to identify the person-centered care provided by general hospital nurses caring for patients with cancer pain, explore the influential factors on person-centered care, and examine the correlation between the factors.
To elucidate the person-centered care provided by nurses for patients with cancer pain, this study employed a conceptual framework grounded on McCormack and McCance's Person-centered Care Theory and Swanson's Caring Theory. Based on this conceptual framework, the major study variables included cancer pain management attitude, cancer pain management knowledge, empathy, communication competence, and caring efficacy.
The study utilized a cross-sectional, descriptive research study, and the data were collected through an online survey from February 6 to February 19, 2023. The data collected from 169 participants were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 program.
Significant positive correlations were found between empathy and communication competence (r=.27, p<.001), empathy and caring efficacy (r=.16, p=.042), and communication competence and caring efficacy (r=.62, p<. 001). In addition, person-centered care was significantly positively correlated with empathy(r=.18, p=.020), communication competence(r=.52, p<.001), and caring efficacy (r=.57, p<.001).
The study identified that communication competence(β=.26, p=.001) and caring efficacy (β=.38, p<.001) were significant predictors of person-centered care by nurses caring for patients with cancer pain. The regression model explained 38.4% of the variance.
The results of the study can serve as a basis for development and implementation a person-centered care education program to enhance the person-centered care of nurses caring for patients with cancer pain. The findings of this study may contribute to the further development of theory-based research on person-centered care and the improvement of both the quality of life of patients with cancer pain and the quality of nursing care.