1352 Clinical trials and quality of life assessment (QoLA): The nurse's viewpoint

Abstract

Quality of life is an important concept in the oncology environment because the physical, psychological and social well being of patients are affected by the disease and the related treatments. The relevance of QoLA to nursing clinical practice has been documented in the literature. There is a need to use valid and reliable tools to plan appropriate nursing care, to evaluate the effect of nursing interventions and to justify activities. In clinical trials, the QoLA is being used increasingly to predict patients outcomes and to evaluate medical and nursing interventions. Nurses’ viewpoint of potential benefits and pitfalls related to quality of life assessment will be discussed. Among benefits, it is usually considered that interventions can be adjusted and individualized and the need for supportive care can be evaluated more accurately As for pitfalls, QoLA causes an extra burden if poor introduction and/or incomplete guidelines are provided to patients and staff, and if its implementation is not properly coordinated. Proposals for implementing effective QoLA will be discussed. Basic requirements such as preliminary instructions and guidelines for administration of questionnaires, proposals for reducing missing evaluations and missing data will be presented.