The effect of perioperative nurse-led counselling on patient outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of perioperative nurse-led counseling on unmet needs, quality of life and sexual functions in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery. The research has two stages; the first stage is methodological design; the second stage is of quasi-experimental design type. In the first stage, the Turkish validity and reliability study of the Cancer Survivor's Unmet Needs Measure (CaSUN) was performed. In the second stage, the sample consisted of 82 patients (control n=45; intervention n=37) who were undergoing elective and emergency colorectal cancer surgery. Data were collected before surgery and at 3 months postoperatively, using the FSFI, IIEF, CaSUN-TR, EORTC-QLQ-C30 and CR29. In the first stage, CaSUN-TR total Cronbach alpha was .96, and confirmatory factor analysis fit indices were acceptable. When the third month scores of the control and intervention groups were compared; a statistically significant difference was found between CaSUN-TR unmet and total needs scores, between EORTC-QLQ-C30 general health, physical, role, emotional function, fatigue, insomnia, pain, diarrhea, constipation scores, and between EORTC-QLQ-CR29 body image, anxiety, weight loss, urinary frequency, dysuria, urinary incontinence, abdominal pain, buttock pain, bloating, flatulence, stool frequency, fecal incontinence, and embarrassment scores. Perioperative nurse-led counseling intervention reduces the unmet needs of the patients, increases the general quality of life, improves physical, role and emotional function subscales of quality of life, and also reduces patients' fatigue, insomnia, wound problems, general pain, abdominal pain and buttock pain level, urinary symptoms such as urinary frequency, urinary incontinence, dysuria, bowel symptoms such as bloating, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, fecal incontinence and stool frequency. In addition, it was found that the level of anxiety decreased, the perception of body image improved, the feeling of shame decreased, the weight control improved, and the satisfaction increased.