Osteosarcoma Nursing Care Guidelines: A Tool to Enhance the Nursing Care of Children and Adolescents Enrolled on a Medical Research Protocol

Abstract

Clinical trials dominate the therapeutic approaches used in pediatric oncology with the majority of pediatric oncology patients receiving treatment on medical research protocols. These protocols detail the medical treatment that enrolled patients will receive. Nursing care is not described in these documents. However, nursing care must complement the medical care as written in the medical research protocol. Administering treatments safely, assessing treatment responses, educating patients and families, and communicating with the entire health care team are some of the essential nursing responsibilities that must be carefully orchestrated. Nursing care guidelines, as described here, were created to provide the careful balance between the medical research protocol and associated nursing care. These guidelines describe the nursing actions and considerations involved in caring for pediatric oncology patients enrolled on a particular medical research protocol. The purpose of this article is to describe the process used to create and evaluate nursing care guidelines.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aikin

(2000). Nursing roles in clinical trials. In Klimaszewski

Aikin

Bacon

Distasio

Ehrenberger

Ford

(Eds.). Manual for clinical trials nursing (pp. 273–276). Pittsburgh, PA: ONS Press, Inc.

Bujorian

G. A.

(1988). Clinical trials: Patient issues in the decision-making process. Oncology Nursing Forum, 15, 779–783.

Children's Oncology Group (COG). Retrieved January 3, 2002, from http://www.childrensoncologygroup.org/.

Di Giulio

Arrigo

Gall

Molin

Nieweg

Strohbucker

(1996). Expanding the role of the nurse in clinical trials: The nursing summaries. Cancer Nursing, 19, 343–347.

Hinds

P. S.

Gattuso

Morrell

(2000). Creating a hospital-based nursing research fellowship program for staff nurses. Journal of Nursing Administration, 30, 317–324.

Hughes

(2000). The importance of clinical trials. In Steen

Mirro

(Eds.). Childhood cancer (pp. 183–194). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

McMahon

L. W.

Sealing

P. A.

Mahoney

D. H.

Jr. Bowman

W. P.

Sandler

(2000). Description of a multihospital process to develop a care path for the child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 17, 33–44.

Robison

(1997). General principles of the epidemiology of childhood cancer. In Pizzo

Poplack

(Eds.). Principles and practice of pediatric oncology (ed 3) (p. 5). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott-Raven Publishers.

Rosse

P. A.

Krebs

L. U.

(1999). The nurse's role in the informed consent process. Seminars in Oncology Nursing, 15, 116–123.

10.

Santana

(2000). Medical research in children. In Steen

Mirro

(Eds.). Childhood cancer (pp 175–182). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

11.

Sievers

T. D.

Lagan

M. A.

Bartel

S. B.

Rasco

Blanding

P. J.

(2001). Variation in administration of cyclophosphamide and mesna in the treatment of childhood malignancies. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 18, 37–45.