Cancer Patient Care

An oncology patient is a person who has suffered or is suffering from cancer. Each year there are about 225,000 new cases of cancer. This disease is accompanied by an important emotional burden due to the uncertainty of its evolution, the side effects, the change in daily life and its symptoms. For these reasons, cancer patients often feel a sense of vulnerability and loss of control, which increases their level of distress and makes them need specific care.

The aim of home medical care is for the patient to gain confidence and learn to live with the disease at all stages of its evolution.

Types of oncology patient care

Paying adequate attention to symptoms that appear during the disease process, and giving them a personalized treatment, is the best way to provide quality of life.

  • Pain control: special attention to the presence of pain and its intensive treatment, education in the basic guidelines of analgesic management, request of other techniques when appropriate.
  • Symptom control: at the digestive level (loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation), at the respiratory level (cough, choking sensation), at other levels (fatigue or tiredness, loss of strength, difficulty sleeping, daytime sleepiness, etc).
  • Changes in mood: in the form of anxiety, anguish, depressive symptoms, etc….

Recommendations for relatives

For relatives it is vital to know how to care for and treat the patient, to know what to do and what not to do. Having a team by their side to guide them through the different situations will give them a great deal of security. It is important to follow the recommendations:

  • What to do if you have pain
  • What to do if you have no appetite
  • What to do if he does not want to go out, or does not want to get out of bed; or if on the contrary he wants to go out or travel.
  • What to do if he asks us, how to talk to him, …
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Benefits of care for oncology patients

  • To provide them with a support service that generates security.
  • Provide answers to frequent queries that may arise about symptoms, medication, etc.
  • To answer queries about how to act in the presence of pain.
  • Help to identify possible side effects and advise about them.
  • Provide emotional support through active listening
  • Provide other practical advice that may be requested.
  • In many cases, avoiding trips to the emergency department or long waits in outpatient clinics.