The Effects of Nurse Navigation Program on Symptom Management and Psychosocial Adjustment in Colorectal Cancer Patients

This study was conducted to examine the effect of the nurse navigation program (NNP) applied to patients with colorectal cancer on symptom management and psychosocial adjustment to the disease. The design type was determined as a randomized controlled experimental study with a pretest-posttest control group, with repeated measurements. For this purpose, individuals were divided into two groups as experimental (n=31) and control (n=31) groups. The study was carried out in Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar City Hospital Oncology Clinic between July 2021 and February 2022, after the necessary permissions were obtained. While individualized colorectal cancer education, psycho-oncological counseling and telephone support services were provided to the individuals in the experimental group under the guidance of nurse within the scope of NNP, no intervention was applied to the control group. In the study, data were collected with three different data collection tools: "Information Form", "Nightingale Symptom Assessment Scale (N-SAS)", "Psychosocial Adjustment To Illness Scale (PAIS/PAIS-SR)". Data were collected before NNP (once in the first week after chemotherapy), during NNP (once in the second week after chemotherapy, once in the first week after the next chemotherapy), after NNP (once in the second week after the next chemotherapy). The duration of the interventions performed via the WhatsApp application varied between 45-60 minutes between individuals. The research was completed with a total of 60 individuals, 30 in the experimental group and 30 in the control group. The data obtained in the study were analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 22.0 program.