Cancer and Approach to Care Utilizing Nursing Process

Benchmark – Nursing Process: Approach to Care
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Benchmark – Nursing Process: Approach to Care
This paper discusses cancer diagnosis and staging, cancer complications, the side effects of treatment, and methodologies to reduce the mental and physical effects, the risk factors for cancer cases and deaths, the role of the American Cancer Society in providing awareness and support and the services I would recommend and the rationale, how the nursing process can be used to provide patient care across the lifespan, and the role of liberal arts and humanities in preparing nurses to provide quality care using the nursing process.
Diagnosis and Staging of Cancer
According to Stanford Health Care (n.d.), a cancer diagnosis requires an evaluation of the patient’s history, physical assessment, and diagnostic testing. Several tests are required to establish whether an individual has cancer as other conditions mimic clinical manifestations of cancer. Diagnostic testing is crucial to confirm the illness’s presence, monitor the illness process, plan form, and establish the most appropriate treatment intervention. Cancer diagnosis includes different procedures, including laboratory tests, imaging, endoscopic exams, genetic testing, surgery, and tumor biopsy. The physician could conduct several laboratory tests such as tumor markers, urinalysis, complete blood count (CBC), and blood tests. In diagnostic imaging, the physician uses transmission imaging (including X-rays, bone scans, lymphangiogram, computerized tomography scans, and mammogram), reflection imaging (ultrasound), or emission imaging (magnetic resonance imaging). The endoscopic examinations to diagnose cancer include colonoscopy, cystourethroscopy, upper endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Despite being a complicated procedure, genetic testing establishes gene mutations that increase cancer risk. A biopsy is conducted to investigate using a microscope to eliminate cells or tissue from the body. The biopsy types performed to diagnose cancer include fine-needle aspiration, shave, endoscopic, skin, bone marrow, incisional or excisional, and punch biopsy (Stanford Health Care, n.d.).
Staging entails establishing a degree of cancer within an individual’s body and location. Cancer staging enables the physician to understand the severity of the disease and a patient’s likelihood of survival, plan the ideal treatment for the patient, and recommend the appropriate treatment option based on clinical trials. The stage at which cancer is diagnosed is used to identify cancer even if it spreads or worsens. The physician uses different diagnostic procedures to establish the illness stage, including laboratory tests, x-rays, and other procedures. There are various staging systems for cancer. However, the TNM staging system is normally used to learn the stage for many cancer types. In the TNM structure, the T describes the extent and size of the primary tumor, the N explains the sum of adjacent cancerous lymph nodes, and the M implies whether or not the disease has metastasized (i.e., this means that the disease has spread fro...