Abstract

COSTA, Maria Antónia Cerqueira Morais da  and  ANTUNES, Maria Teresa Calvário. Symptom assessment in patients without the possibility of cure. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2012, vol.serIII, n.7, pp.63-72. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RIII1193.

Life expectancy increase has led to a rise in the number of patients with chronic, progressive and incurable disease; hence every institution that receives this kind of patient has the responsibility to give appropriate palliative care. Objectives: to identify the symptoms perceived by patients without a possibility of cure, hospitalized in an acute hospital’s internal medicine service; to evaluate these symptoms’ progression, between the first and sixth day of hospitalization; and to evaluate the effect of the implemented strategies on the intensity of the symptoms perceived by patients. Methods: this is a quantitative, descriptive-analytical and longitudinal study. The sample is constituted by 150 hospitalized patients with chronic diseases. Results: of the nine ESAS symptoms, anxiety (=5,75; SD=3,25), depression (= 5,74; SD=3,13), and tiredness (=5,64; SD=3,01) were those that showed the highest mean intensity, while shortness of breath (=3,13; SD=3,23) and nausea (=1,60; SD=3,08) had lower mean values. Comparing the first and second evaluation times, there was a decrease in the intensity of all assessed symptoms; this difference is statistically significant for pain, appetite, shortness of breath (p=0,001). Conclusion: all the patients studied showed lack of symptom control, which persisted during hospitalization, despite of a slight decrease in symptom intensity.

Keywords : chronic disease; symptom assessment; ESAS.

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