Complementary Alternative Therapies in Nursing

Advanced cancer causes many symptoms contributing to unfulfilling life experiences. However, there has been advancement in managing most of the pain they experience, nausea and constipation, as well. Despite this advancement, other common symptoms such as fatigue, depression, and anxiety have not been addressed fully (Lim, Wong, & Aung, 2011). With so many symptoms in such patients, addressing each pain is hard. Thus, research on complementary and alternative therapies has been conducted to address all the symptoms at the same time. Acupuncture has been recognized as one of the complementary and alternative therapies for improving several of the symptoms arising from treatment of cancer. Acupuncture is practiced by use of solid metallic needles that are inserted in locations of the patient’s body to reduce certain reactions believed to cause flowing of vital energy in the body (Cheng, 2011).

In “Is there a role for acupuncture in the symptom management of patients receiving palliative care for cancer? A pilot study of 20 patients comparing acupuncture with nurse-led supportive care,” effectiveness of acupuncture is studied. The purpose of this study is show changes in the symptoms of cancer after using acupuncture or the nurse-led supportive care. The intent of the study is to find out the different changes achieved through using acupuncture or nurse-led supportive (Lim, Wong, & Aung, 2011). This will shed light on the effectiveness of using the acupuncture through comparing it to the normal nurse-led supportive method.

The study was done on 20 patients receiving palliative care for cancer. The sample was chosen from a population of 170 patients under such care. Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) was used in screening the population that identified 20 patients who under went randomized acupuncture or nurse-led supportive care weekly for a period of 4 weeks. Sores were collected before and after the treatment using the ESAS for the four weeks. After the four weeks, scores were collected trough telephone. Bias was avoided by having the patients score their own symptoms without receiving help. Additionally, nurses and acupuncturists had no access to the scores since they were not aware of ESAS scores (Lim, Wong, & Aung, 2011). The patients received both acupuncture and nurse-led supportive care randomly every week. The ESAS was used for analyzing the data collected about the effectiveness of both methods for each patient, which provided easy correlation and comparison.

After screening the 170 patients going through palliative care, 42 of them turned out to be eligible for the study. However, only 20 of them gave a signed consent to go through the study. After the study, it was realized that symptom reduced by 22% on average after every acupuncture visit while they reduced by 14% on average after every nurse-led supportive care. After the whole period of the visits, the ESAS showed a reduction of 19% after using acupuncture, while nurse-led supportive care showed a reduction of 26% (Lim, Wong, & Aung, 2011). It was clear that acupuncture faster relief with each treatment but did not last for long. On the other hand, nurse-led supportive care did not provide fast relief compared to acupuncture but provided higher results in the long-term.

A question one could ask is whether it would be better to use acupuncture to reduce symptoms for a short period before the patients needs to go back for more, or whether reducing pain in long-term would be the best. Using acupuncture will provide better immediate relief, which patients would need, while nurse-led supportive care would not provide much pain immediate relief but the little improvement will last long. Thus, one would ask whether it would be possible to use both together to address the symptoms or only one can be used each time.

This research provides very useful information for nurses considering the results show that acupuncture is a credible complementary alternative therapy method of providing intervention to symptoms experienced by advanced cancer patients. With this information, depending on the patient, I would be in a position to recommend for acupuncture in severe symptoms needing faster relief and recommend nurse-led supportive care for less severe symptoms that patients might be in a position to handle for longer. This study proves that acupuncture plays a role in addressing advanced cancer symptoms. Both acupuncture and nurse-led supportive care would complement each other where one fails, considering acupuncture provides better relief in short-term while nurse-led supportive care provides long-term relief.

Reference

Cheng, K.J. (2011). Neuroanatomical Characteristics of Acupuncture Points: Relationship between their Anatomical Locations and Traditional Clinical Implications. Acupuncture in Medicine, 29 (4): 289-294.

Lim, J.T., Wong E.T., & Aung S. K. (2011). Is there a role for acupuncture in the symptom management of patients receiving palliative care for cancer? A pilot study of 20 patients comparing acupuncture with nurse-led supportive care. Acupuncture in Medicine, 29 (3): 173-179.