Component of nursing documentation for monitoring patients suffering from lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Component of nursing documentation was designed to monitor nutritional status of cancer patients, and has been implemented at the Clinic for lung diseases as required documentation. OBJECTIVES: 1)Whether the underlying disease or treatment symptoms are associated with a reduction in food intake, 2)Is there a connection between the stages of chemotherapy with the degree of reduced food intake, 3)BMI has been associated with the risk of malnutrition, but whether it is a sufficient indicator for the assessment of nutritional status in patients with cancer. METHODS: These are the results from November 2013 to June 2014 on a sample of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The study included all patients who came for chemotherapy (N=76). All patients received supportive therapy according to current Croatian guidelines. Monitoring of patients was documented in the form of nursing documentation. Component included following data: stage and the type of cancer and treatment, age, sex, skinfold thickness, a standardized questionnaire (Nutritional NRS 2002), vital signs, BMI, subjective symptoms. RESULTS: 1)Reduced food intake was associated with the consequences of chemotherapy, but test bivariate correlation analysis on the risk level of 5% does not show a statistically significant correlation, 2)Correlation between the stage of chemotherapy, degree and cause of reduced food intake, has not been proven, 3)BMI is not a sufficient indicator for assessing the nutritional status of cancer patients and the elderly. CONCLUSION: Initial evaluation and assessment of nutritional status should be required and inseparable part care for the patients with lung cancer.