Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
All patients were asked to complete the Hospital Anxiety and
Depression (HADS) questionnaire and a Rotterdam Symptom
Checklist (RSCL) prior to starting their chemotherapy and at the
beginning of each cycle of chemotherapy for a total number of five
cycles for breast cancer patients. Patients receiving weekly
chemotherapy for colorectal cancer completed the HADS and RSCL
prior to starting chemotherapy and then at weeks, 3, 6, 9, 12, and
15.
Patients randomised to the intervention group received daily diary
cards to complete following each cycle of their chemotherapy
treatment. They were also asked by the researcher or the
chemotherapy nurses prior to their next cycle to describe any
episodes of nausea or vomiting they had experienced since their last
course of chemotherapy. Their responses were recorded in the
patients’ notes and their patient information folders.
Control group
All participants in the control group had a risk factor assessment
relating to nausea and vomiting prior to the commencement of their
chemotherapy regimen that was completed by the research team.
They also completed a HADS and RSCL questionnaire at the
beginning of each cycle of chemotherapy, or every three weeks if
they had a colorectal diagnosis. Following each cycle of
chemotherapy or every three weeks they were asked to describe to
the researcher or the chemotherapy nurses any episodes of nausea
or vomiting or other symptoms that that they had experienced
following each course of chemotherapy. This information was
documented in their medical notes and in their patient information
folders.
Data analysis
The first stage in the analysis of quantitative data is to organise the
raw data in a way that makes it easily understood. This involved
scoring the quality of life questionnaires (QOLs) using the scoring
criteria already available for them (HADS and RSCL). Once the
scoring was complete, the scores were transferred onto an Excel
spreadsheet. A simple scoring method for analysing the data from
the DDCs was developed and this data was also transferred onto a
spreadsheet in Excel. Once this process was completed all the data
was transferred on to SPSS (Pallant 2001). Data was then checked
for accuracy and missing data examined.
The differences of means of variables that provided interval data
and between group changes were examined using the t-test. These
variables included anxiety and depression scores from the HADS
and physical and psychological scores such as nausea and vomiting
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