The Effectiveness of Informational and Emotional Consultation on Psychological Impacts among Breast Cancer Women with Modified Radical Mastectomy

Tuesday, 13 July 2010: 10:30 AM

Hsiu-Hung Wang, RN, PhD, FAAN
College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: Evaluate the effectiveness of the informational and emotional consultation on body image and emotional distress in breast cancer women who underwent MRM.

Learning Objective 2: Know the nursing intervention of informational and emotional consultation can be a guideline for hospitals and nurses when taking care of women who undergo MRM.

In Taiwan, female breast cancer was ranked as the top one leading cause of  cancer death. Women who undergo a mastectomy might cause emotional disturbance by deteriorating body image. A proper nursing intervention should be provided to restore their body image and reduce anxiety and emotional distress.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the informational and emotional consultation on body image, anxiety, and emotional distress in breast cancer women who underwent Modified Radical Mastectomy (MRM).
A quasi-experimental design with a purposive sampling was used. Two districts of a regional hospital in Southern Taiwan were recruited as research settings. Totally, 63 breast cancer women completed the interviews, 32 in the experimental group and 31 in the control group. The participants in the experimental group received a two-session informational and emotional consultation and the participants in the control group received routine nursing care. All participants completed 3-time face-to-face interviews, including pre-test (time 1, before the surgery), post-test (time 2, the day discharged from the hospital), and follow-up test (time 3, 2 months after the surgery).
The intervention did not have an immediate effect (the day of discharge from the hospital), it had prolonged positive effects (two months after surgery) on body image, anxiety, and emotional distress. The satisfaction evaluation of the intervention in the experimental group showed that the participants had a high level of satisfaction of the intervention.
Our findings suggest that nursing intervention of informational and emotional consultation could reduce patient’s anxiety at either short-term or long-term stages, however, could only improve perception of body image and emotional distress at a long-term stage, indicating that they take time be internalized and improve. The nursing intervention of informational and emotional consultation can be a guideline for hospitals and nurses when taking care of women who undergo MRM.