TY - JOUR
T1 - The COVID-19 pandemic
T2 - a new epoch and fresh challenges for cancer patients and caregivers—a descriptive cross-sectional study
AU - Mishra, Seema
AU - Gupta, Raghav
AU - Bhatnagar, Sushma
AU - Garg, Rakesh
AU - Bharati, Sachidanand Jee
AU - Kumar, Vinod
AU - Gupta, Nishkarsh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - Purpose: Cancer patients and their caregivers are overwhelmed with features of uncertainty, fear, shock, worry, anxiety, sadness, and grief. To add on to their misery, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely afflicted the cancer care delivery. The study was conducted to observe the challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers and to formulate strategies for oncological setups to overcome those challenges. Methods: After obtaining institutional ethical clearance, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to observe the challenges faced by patients and their caregivers at the level of various domains (physical, logistic, psychological, socioeconomic, and spiritual) who visited the outpatient and inpatient department of cancer pain and palliative care unit. The results were expressed in absolute numbers. Results: Major challenges encountered were suffering from physical symptoms like pain, nausea, vomiting, dyspnea (90%), postponement of cancer treatment (80%), fear of contracting COVID infection due to hospital visit (93.5%), lack of accommodation (70%), and lack of spiritual clarity and hope (50%). Conclusions: Major challenges faced by patients were in physical and psychological domains, and those by caregivers were in socioeconomic domains and handling physical symptoms of their patients. It is imperative to recognize and be cognizant of the challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers. Health care setups should formulate strategies to alleviate these challenges and provide holistic care to cancer patients. These strategies will hold in good stead for future pandemics also.
AB - Purpose: Cancer patients and their caregivers are overwhelmed with features of uncertainty, fear, shock, worry, anxiety, sadness, and grief. To add on to their misery, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely afflicted the cancer care delivery. The study was conducted to observe the challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers and to formulate strategies for oncological setups to overcome those challenges. Methods: After obtaining institutional ethical clearance, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to observe the challenges faced by patients and their caregivers at the level of various domains (physical, logistic, psychological, socioeconomic, and spiritual) who visited the outpatient and inpatient department of cancer pain and palliative care unit. The results were expressed in absolute numbers. Results: Major challenges encountered were suffering from physical symptoms like pain, nausea, vomiting, dyspnea (90%), postponement of cancer treatment (80%), fear of contracting COVID infection due to hospital visit (93.5%), lack of accommodation (70%), and lack of spiritual clarity and hope (50%). Conclusions: Major challenges faced by patients were in physical and psychological domains, and those by caregivers were in socioeconomic domains and handling physical symptoms of their patients. It is imperative to recognize and be cognizant of the challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers. Health care setups should formulate strategies to alleviate these challenges and provide holistic care to cancer patients. These strategies will hold in good stead for future pandemics also.
KW - Cancer patients
KW - Caregivers
KW - Challenges
KW - COVID-19 pandemic
KW - Strategies
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U2 - 10.1007/s00520-021-06564-4
DO - 10.1007/s00520-021-06564-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 34536134
AN - SCOPUS:85115125527
SN - 0941-4355
VL - 30
SP - 1547
EP - 1555
JO - Supportive Care in Cancer
JF - Supportive Care in Cancer
IS - 2
ER -