Journal of Patient Care

Abstract

Nursing Care in Polycythemia Vera: A Review Article

Ozkaraman A, Babadag B and Tuna HI

Background: Polycythemia vera (PV) is a chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm, which is a threat to life. Teamwork is needed during the process of treatment and care of patients suffering from PV, which is a chronic illness. Especially, important roles fall to the nurses within the team.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to assess the symptoms in connection with PV and the treatment and the difficulties which have been experienced, in accordance with the System for the Categorisation of Nursing Diagnoses of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) and present possible nursing diagnoses and the management of symptoms according to these diagnoses.

Methods: This review article was carried out by have been scanned with the search terms PV, care and nursing in PubMed databases, CINAHL^®, Ebsco Academic Search Complete, Scopus and Scholar Google databases. The approaches directed at the nursing diagnoses which have been determined in the article, are based on the papers from peer-reviewed publications, books, guidelines and the recommendations made by medical professionals.

Results and conclusion: The important nursing diagnosis related with PV are altered gas exchange, altered tissue perfusion, fatigue, high risk of injury, high risk of infection, deterioration of comfort (itching), high risk of impaired skin integrity and pain. It was not possible to find any randomized controlled studies on this subject. It is recommended that these diagnosis and differences are taken into account in nursing interventions. Nurses need to use a patient centred approach in the administration of PV, in order to assess the patients, plan care and achieve the self-management of the disease with the patient, who has been empowered with knowledge.