Reducing Cancer Pain with Pharmacology and Alternative Therapies

Abstract

For Nursing 353 I was assigned to write a literature synthesis paper. The short paper was supposed to model a Systematic Review. A Systematic Review is seen as one of the highest levels of evidence in research because it reaches conclusions based off the inclusion of many resources and references on the selected topic. To decide on a research topic, I selected a clinical area that I was interested in and formulated a PICOT question to answer after reviewing research articles. My research or PICOT question was, “In adult cancer patients, what is the effect of alternative medicines or therapies on pain scores and patient quality of life compared with pharmacological drugs during cancer treatment?” After reviewing three selected scholarly journals I concluded that alternative therapies could decrease pain scores when paired with pharmacologic drugs. A decrease in pain scores helped improve a patient’s quality of life. To further build onto my assignment in class, I will present the findings and process of this assignment. I also created two infographics to provide information. This presentation could be given to other student nurses, nursing faculty, healthcare providers, or another public audience wishing to seek this information. This presentation of information will further disseminate this knowledge which is a vital goal of research done in a researcher’s career.