Nursing Interventions: Breast Cancer

1. Always evaluate the patient’s feelings about her illness and determine her level of knowledge and expectations.
2. Administer analgesics for pain as needed.
3. Perform comfort measures to promote relaxation and to relieve anxiety.
4. If immobility develops late in the disease, prevent complications by frequently repositioning the patient, using a convoluted foam mattress.
5. Provide skin care particularly in bony prominences.
6. Provide measures to relive adverse effects of treatment.
7. Instruct the patient or caregiver how to manage adverse effects of treatment.
8. Watch for treatment complications, such as nausea, vomiting, anorexia, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia, gastrointestinal ulceration, and bleeding.
9. Monitor patient’s weight and nutritional intake for evidence of malnutrition.
10. Inspect the skin for redness, irritation, and skin breakdown if immobility occurs.
11. In late disease, monitor the patient’s pain level and the efficacy of administered analgesics and non-pharmacologic measures.
12. Assess the patient’s and family’s ability to cope, especially if the cancer is terminal.