Medical oncology nurses administer CPR often in patients who are unlikely to survive the CPR event and be discharged from the hospital. Several investigators found that the diagnosis of cancer, including metastatic cancer, was found to be associated with a decreased rate of survival to discharge from the hospital (Varon et al 1988 and Ebell 1992). Another study suggested that cancer patients should be considered for possible CPR “only after considerable reflection by families and clinicians” (Taffet et al. 1988). However, there are several factors that are associated with a positive outcome of CPR in cancer patients; these include acute cardiovascular drug toxicity (Sculier and Markiewicz 1996), ventricular tachycardia /ventricular fibrillation (Martens et al 1995, Danciu et al 2004) and unwitnessed arrests (Taffett et al 1988).        The purpose of this study is to determine the outcomes of oncology patients who have a cardiac and/or respiratory arrest and undergo CPR. Specifically, the study will investigate survival rates, disposition, and functional status of oncology patients who undergo CPR. The population will be all adult oncology patients who had in-hospital CPR performed between January 1, 2002 and May 31, 2005.  Age, gender, marital status, children and their ages, ethnicity, type of cancer and stage of cancer, presence of metastatic cancer, presence of advanced directives, triage level, length of CPR, outcome of CPR, functional status will be examined.  

See more of Poster Presentations I
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)