Abstract:

Objective

To study the efficacy of integrated management model of medical treatment and nursing in day-care chemotherapy unit for breast cancer patients.

Methods

This was a before-after control study. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 123 breast cancer patients were enrolled in the First Affiliated Hospital of the Third Military Medical University from October 2014 to March 2015. They had undergone 4 cycles of postoperative chemotherapy (EC-T regimen: epirubicin + cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel) from October to December 2014, and they would complete another 4 cycles of postoperative chemotherapy from January to March 2015. Since January 2015, we implemented integrated management of medical treatment and nursing in day-care chemotherapy unit for breast cancer patients in order to improve the hospitalization process. Before and after the implementation, SERVQUAL questionnaire was used to evaluate the patients' satisfaction. Twenty-five doctors and nurses were surveyed by the questionnaire developed by Tong et al to evaluate the satisfaction of the medical staff. The paired χ² test (McNemar method) was used to compare the satisfaction of patients and medical staff before and after the implementation. The waiting time of patients was compared by paired t test.

Results

A total of 114 valid questionnaires from patients were collected and the recovery rate was 92.7% (114/123). Twenty-three valid questionnaires from medical staff was collected and the recovery rate was 92.0%(23/25).After the implementation of integrated management, the patients' satisfactions with medical service, health education and hospitalization process were increased (all P＜0.001); the satisfactions of medical staff with chemotherapy drug infusion safety, doctor-nurse cooperation and workload were also increased (all P ＜0.001). The waiting time of patients was (1.45±0.12) h after implementation, significantly lower than (4.92±0.66) h before implementation(t=54.397,P ＜0.001).

Conclusion

Integrated management of medical treatment and nursing in day-care chemotherapy unit for breast cancer patients can improve the satisfaction of both patients and medical staff, regarded as a safe and efficient model.

Key words: Breast neoplasms, Drug therapy, Hospital units, Disease management