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Nursing interventions for managing fatigue in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy

Kalina Katrandzhieva, Katya Eguruze

Abstract

Radiation-induced fatigue is a common early and chronic side effect of radiation therapy, reported by up to 80% of patients, during radiation therapy and respectively at 30% of follow-up visits. Fatigue is often underestimated by medical and nursing staff, only about 50% of patients discuss it with a doctor and in a quarter of the cases the patient is offered any intervention.  This literature review identifies non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue management that nurses can independently initiate and implement, and describes these interventions in detail. The ultimate goal is to provide nurses with intervention-specific knowledge needed to guide their implementation in daily practice.

Keywords

nursing interventions, radiation therapy, fatigue management

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References

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14748/sm.v29i1.9047

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