Implementation of a Discharge Planning to Improve Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Background: Breast surgery for women newly diagnosed with breast cancer isassociated with poor postoperative quality of life (QOL). The aim of this study wasto determine the effectiveness of a programmed discharge planning in improvingoverall QOL and its physical, emotional, social, and spiritual domains.Method: In this quasi-experimental study, we evaluated the newly diagnosedbreast cancer women undergoing breast-conserving therapy in two groups, anexperimental group (n = ۳۵) and a control group (n = ۳۴). The experimental groupreceived programmed discharge planning at the time of hospital admission until sixweeks after discharge. The control group received routine hospital care. Participantscompleted the QOL questionnaires before and after the intervention. The data wereanalyzed using the independent-samples t test, Fisher exact test, and Mann-Whitney U. Results: Before the intervention, there were no significant differences betweenthe control and experimental groups in overall QOL or its physical, emotional,social, and spiritual domains. The data analysis after intervention showedsignificant improvement in QOL in the experimental group as compared with thecontrol group. The changes in the scores of various domains of QOL werestatistically significant (P < ۰.۰۱).Conclusion: This study emphasizes that programmed discharge planning isuseful for improving QOL after breast-conserving surgery. Our finding could beapplied to breast cancer patients with radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

Keywords:

Breast cancer , discharge planning , quality of life , breast-conserving therapy