To (1) describe the characteristics of patients with advanced cancer receiving home-based care, (2) identify the nursing diagnoses associated with 6-month mortality and (3) explore the predictive power of nursing diagnoses on 6-month mortality for patients with an advanced cancer diagnosis.
Nursing diagnoses have been shown to capture the complexity of patients' experiences and the specific nursing care related to patients' responses to illness, including increased mortality risk. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the relationship between nursing diagnoses and mortality among cancer patients receiving home-based care.
Retrospective cohort study.
Between July 2021 and June 2023, patients with advanced cancer were consecutively admitted to a home-based care service. Medical data, prognostic indexes and nursing assessment data, including nursing diagnoses from NANDA International, assigned during the first home visit, were extracted from patient health records. Survival analysis was performed over the first 6 months using the Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model.
Among 344 enrolled patients, the most frequent nursing diagnoses were chronic pain and constipation. The 45.9% of patients died at home within 6 months after discharge. Multivariate Cox regression identified a Palliative Prognostic Index ≥ 5, palliative status, terminal phase of illness and two nursing diagnoses—imbalanced nutrition: less than body requirements and death anxiety—as significant predictors of 6-month mortality.
Survival in advanced cancer patients receiving home care was primarily predicted by the terminal phase of illness, Palliative Prognostic Index, palliative status and two specific nursing diagnoses: imbalanced nutrition: less than body requirements and death anxiety.
The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines were adopted in this study.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
To explore the impact of 12 American Nurses Association recognized standardized nursing terminologies (SNTs) on patient and organizational outcomes.
Previous studies reported an effect of SNTs on outcomes, but no previous frameworks nor meta-analyses were found.
Systematic review and meta-analyses.
PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and OpenGrey databases were last consulted in July 2021. All abstracts and full texts were screened independently by two researchers. The review included primary quantitative studies that reported an association between recognized SNTs and outcomes. Two reviewers independently assessed the risk of bias and certainty of evidence for each meta-analyzed outcome using the “Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation” (GRADE) approach.
Fifty-three reports were included. NANDA-NIC-NOC and Omaha System were the most frequently reported SNTs used in the studies. Risk of bias in randomized controlled trials and not-randomized controlled trials ranged from high to unclear, this risk was low in cross-sectional studies. The number of nursing diagnoses NANDA-I moderately correlated with the intensive care unit length of stay (r = 0.38; 95% CI = 0.31–0.44). Using the Omaha System nurse-led transitional care program showed a large increase in both knowledge (d = 1.21; 95% CI = 0.97–1.44) and self-efficacy (d = 1.23; 95% CI = 0.97–1.48), while a reduction on the readmission rate (OR = 0.46; 95% CI = 0.09–0.83). Nursing diagnoses were found to be useful predictors for organizational (length of stay) and patients' outcomes (mortality, quality of life). The GRADE indicated that the certainty of evidence was rated from very low to low.
Studies using SNTs demonstrated significant improvement and prediction power in several patients' and organizational outcomes. Further high-quality research is required to increase the certainty of evidence of these relationships.
SNTs should be considered by healthcare policymakers to improve nursing care and as essential reporting data about patient's nursing complexity to guide reimbursement criteria.