Nursing and cancer pain

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A major complaint of cancer patients is pain. In Brazil, it is estimated that 62 to 90% of cancer patients have some type of pain; however in Brazil pain is still inadequately controlled and managed for cancer patients, being that 24.5 to 46.6% have their pain inadequately managed. This study aimed at identifying in the Brazilian literature the status of nursing assistance and knowledge about cancer pain to deepen knowledge about nursing care practices for painful cancer patients. CONTENTS: This is an exploratory study by means of integrative literature review. National studies in Portuguese language and fully available in LILACS, Scielo and BDENF databases, published between 2002 and 2012 were used, achieving a final sample of 24 articles, which were grouped in 3 thematic axes portraying difficulties faced by nurses to assist painful cancer patients, going from poor knowledge to the scarce number of professionals, in addition to the scarcity of studies addressing the theme. CONCLUSION: Results of our study have contributed to the scientific background of the nursing team, giving them support for the acquisition of pain management skills, especially with regard to its adequate measurement, major aspects of intervention and predominant stumbling-blocks for pain management.

Perfil dos atendimentos a pacientes oncológicos em uma unidade de pronto atendimento

“…Dados da Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) mostram que, das cinco milhões de pessoas que morrem de câncer por ano, 80% não têm um controle devido da dor. No Brasil, a estimativa é que, de 62 a 90% dos pacientes oncológicos apresentam algum tipo de dor, sendo o segundo país da América Latina em que os portadores de câncer mais sentem dor (18) .…”

Conhecimento de enfermeiros residentes sobre o manejo da dor oncológica: estudo transversal

“…In addition to the beliefs mentioned above, among Brazilian nurses we observed a lack of knowledge about the concepts related to strategies for the evaluation of cancer pain and to the pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures to control it (1) .…”

“…Inadequate knowledge and erroneous beliefs of health professionals are among the main barriers to adequate pain control (1) , since they lead to underestimation of patients' complaints about pain, use of inadequate analgesic regimes and the persistence of myths and misconceptions of patients and relatives (1)(2) .…”

“…These inadequate conceptions are pointed out as reasons for the inadequate control of pain (1)(2)(3) , which, although frequent and considered an emergency in patients with cancer, is still poorly understood by professionals, a fact that has limited the provision of care to patients.…”

“…Cancer pain occurs in between 62.0% and 90.0% of patients, manifesting at all stages of the disease (1) and may be related to the procedures required for diagnosis or treatment, to disease progression or its associated morbidity. Currently, due to its high incidence and mortality, cancer is considered a serious public health issue and 596 thousand new cases of the disease are estimated to be diagnosed in Brazil for the 2016/2017 biennium (4) .…”