Monday, November 14, 2005: 9:00 AM-10:15 AM
The PRO-SELF PROGRAM – Self-Care Interventions and Beyond for Symptom and Side effect Management
Learning Objective #1: Identify three components of a self-care intervention
Learning Objective #2: Identify two promising future directions for symptom management and side effect research
Since 1979, Marylin Dodd has investigated symptom management strategies in adult patients who are receiving treatment for cancer or other chronic conditions. This presentation will describe a program of research that began with studies to determine and enhance patients' treatment knowledge, a prerequisite for self-care as a symptom management strategy. In addition, she documented the self-care behaviors (activities) that patients performed to prevent or manage the side effects of cancer treatment. Building on the findings of this research, she designed and initiated a series of intervention studies (to enhance self-care activities) in which self-care (to manage the side effects of treatment) was the primary outcome. Subsequently, randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were conducted in which self-care interventions were aimed at decreasing the morbidity associated with treatment side effects. Four RCTs tested the effectiveness of subsequent self-care intervention programs in managing: selected chemotherapy side effects; chemotherapy oral mucositis; metastatic bone pain; and chemotherapy-related fatigue. Two additional ongoing RCTs are testing self-care interventions plus active pharmaceutical interventions: fentynal analgesic patch for post breast cancer surgery pain; and a colony-stimulating factor in a mouthwash for oral mucositis in patients who have head and neck cancer and are receiving radiation therapy +/- concurrent chemotherapy. Each of these studies has had interdisciplinary research team members, has been informed by the School of Nursing's Center for Symptom Management colleagues, and has been supported in part by the Model for Symptom Management. The presentation will conclude with current work and future directions for symptom management: "symptom clusters" defined as three or more concurrent symptoms that are related to each other; and biomarkers including candidate gene identification as these relate to symptom measurement and management.
Presenter:	Marylin J. Dodd, RN, PhD, FAAN
Organizer:	Marylin J. Dodd, RN, PhD, FAAN

Sigma Theta Tau International
38th Biennial Convention - Scientific Sessions
November 14, 2005
Indianapolis, IN