Effectiveness and content components of nursing counselling interventions on self- and symptom management of patients in oncology rehabilitation-A systematic review.
Verena Witzig Brändli, Cordula Lange, Andrea Kobleder and 1 others
PMID 36528868WHAT IT FOUND
Nurse-led counselling in cancer rehab had mixed effects.
Some trials increased self-efficacy and reduced anxiety or depression; others showed no clear change. The interventions shared goals, action planning, tailored information, and empowerment.
Key findings
01Self-management outcomes were mixed: self-efficacy or self-empowerment rose in some trials, while other trials found no clear difference.
02Symptom outcomes were also mixed: some trials reported less anxiety or depression, while others reported no clear difference.
03The nurse-led interventions commonly included identifying concerns, setting realistic goals, developing actions, empowering patients, evaluating goals, giving self- or symptom-management information, and providing personalised care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only seven studies were included, with 829 patients in total, so the review cannot settle whether nurse-led counselling works. The interventions varied widely in theory, content, duration, frequency, and delivery method, and no meta-analysis was done because of heterogeneity. The included studies measured many different outcomes at different time points with different instruments, making comparison difficult. Several randomised trials had quality problems, including missing sample-size calculations, incomplete follow-up, and failure to recruit enough patients. Two studies had no control group, so pre-post changes cannot show the intervention caused the change. All outcomes were self-reported. The search was limited to three databases, English or German full texts, and a hand search of the first hundred Google Scholar hits; no study registers were searched. The studies came only from Australia, China, and the United States, where nurses' roles and scope of practice differ.
Declared interests
The review was supported by the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, and the authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that nurse-led counselling reliably improves cancer rehabilitation outcomes. The review found mixed results, with several studies showing no clear effect, and the interventions were too varied to identify what worked.