Health Care Providers’ Perceptions of Nutrition Support in Pediatric Oncology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients

Abstract

One of the most common side effects of medical treatment for patients with an oncologic diagnosis is malnutrition. There is limited research that broadly assesses the perceptions of health care providers (HCPs) regarding nutrition support in the pediatric population. The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of nutrition support among pediatric oncology and hematopoietic stem cell transplant HCPs. The study used a cross-sectional descriptive design using a 31-item survey. Results of the survey indicated that nurses were more likely to initiate conversations about nutrition support during the first month of diagnosis, while midlevel providers and physicians initiated discussions in response to a change in nutritional status evidenced by decreased oral intake or weight loss. Participants reported resistance by patients and families more often for enteral nutrition compared with parenteral nutrition. Findings suggest a need to develop a more unified service line-based approach for initiating discussions related to nutrition support that incorporate patient and family perceptions.

Nursing care for patients in post-transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells: an integrative review

“…Nurses were nominally cited as responsible for the care listed in 26 of the primary studies (2,13,(15)(16)(17)(19)(20)(21)(23)(24)27,29,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)41,(44)(45)(48)(49)(50) , and in the remaining 16 (5,(11)(12)14,18,22,(25)(26)28,(30)(31)40,(42)(43)(46)(47) , the nursing team was mentioned.…”

“…Technical care (involving skills developed by professionals) occurred in 26 of the surveys included in the review (2,11,(13)(14)(17)(18)(20)(21)(22)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)41,(45)(46)50) . Care guidance, for execution by patients and family members at home, was investigated in five studies (15)(16)23,(47)(48) . The combination of technical care and guidance provided was thematic studied in 11 studies (5,12,19,(24)(25)(26)40,(42)(43)(44)49) .…”

“…In the first category, multiple nursing care, the authors of the primary studies investigated different care, the activities of nurses and or nursing staff, considering the different stages and contexts of post-HSCT (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) .…”

“…In four studies (21,23,(25)(26) , the authors discussed the role of nurses in the indication and implementation of enteral nutrition and/or parenteral nutrition, with parents of children undergoing HSCT in the event of decreased oral intake or loss of weight.…”

“…Intervention/ treatment or diagnosis/ diagnostic test/II ¶ Meseguer-Liza et al (22) 2010/ Spain Prospective descriptive study N=10 Reliability of the new fever diagnostic method. Prognosis/ prediction or etiology/IV † Montgomery et al (23) 2016/ United States of America…”