Distress detection among cancer patients is increasingly becoming common in cancer care. Momentary mood disturbances are frequent among cancer patients as the disease develops through its stages with depression the most common outcome. Detecting distress during the early stages is the only practical way of managing it, as it becomes difficult when the disease has developed. Recently, there have been substantial concerns regarding the distress among patients in gynecologic settings, and development of various interventions to regulate it. Detecting Distress is one of the articles focusing on detection of stress in patients in gynecologic settings. This paper seeks to summarize and analyze the articles for further comprehension of its content.
Gynecologic cancer is one of the few diseases that contribute to social, psychological and practical challenges. Apart from the physical effects of gynecologic cancer on patients, distress can worsen as patients as they spend most of their time worrying and reflecting on their health. The article points out that the average prevalence rates of psychological distress among cancer patients is between 35 percent and 49 percent, but the rate could be higher due to under-detection (O'Connor, Tanner, Miller, Watts & Musiello, 2017) . Patients with gynecologic cancer are subjected to psychological distress due to various conditions, including financial strains, spiritual and existential distress, meaning that the slightest under-detection of distress could be critical to the patient's general health. Detection of distress should be a routine as some patients may fail to indicate distress during the primary stages of distress but get overwhelmed as they start to feel the real physical and psychological effects as the disease progresses.
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Qualitative research is the best way of researching distress detection among gynecologic cancer patients because most of the study entails questionnaires and interviews. The sample includes 62 patients with gynecologic cancer in a pre-admission clinic. Gynecologic cancer patients usually attend pre-clinic before surgery. The research is necessary as it highlights various concerns among women diagnosed with gynecologic cancer, including sexual issues, sensitive questions and improving their ability to prioritize their concerns (O'Connor, Tanner, Miller, Watts & Musiello, 2017) . The findings, according to the characteristics of the samples seem useful as they enable practitioners to validate what they do, helping cancer patients to prioritize their significant concerns and the ability to ask more detailed questions. Similarly, the DT and PL tool is valuable as it informs the practitioner's ability to select the most appropriate questions when the time is limited.
Some of the challenges that occur during detection include time because the method requires a sensitive approach, knowledge, and experience. Allocating time is the busy pre-admission clinic is not a good idea, considering the high number of research samples. The research would have yielded better results, especially time-wise if the samples had been chosen during the early detection stages. However, detection of distress in gynecologic setting was successful as established by previous research indicating the usefulness of DT in detecting distress among men with prostate cancer. Some of the challenges identified during this research include access to a social worker, space and time. A social worker must be present during the proceedings to address the patient's needs and emergency issues. The social worker also makes the patients feel free and view the research as a normal process.
The study results indicate that nearly 50 percent of the participants indicated low distress while the other half indicated high levels of distress that required critical attention. Similarly, 207 patients cited physical issues, including fear, nervousness and worry while 226 cited psychosocial issues (O'Connor, Tanner, Miller, Watts & Musiello, 2017) . In general, worry is the most common cause for distress among cancer patients, and the study came to similar conclusions as the majority of the participants had the same problem. Time allocation is a significant difficulty, and medical practitioners and researchers must look for alternative methods to deal with this problem. In contemporary medical settings, technology is one of the most effective means through which researchers can combat the time issue. The HCPs in the research used telephone calls to monitor patients changing condition. Available communication platforms can be used by medical practitioners to save time and avoid regular meetings.
Using DT saves valuable time because it enables the nurses to focus only on important issues; despite some nurse's preconceptions that using the tool makes consultations long and tiring. The effectiveness of the method is also highlighted by the nurse's ability to discuss the patient's concerns, listen carefully and formulate the most appropriate interventions to deal with the issues. The study indicated that the most common distress issues among the participants were physical problems, practical problems, family problems, emotional, and religious issues.
The findings of the research are useful since they highlight various problems encountered by medical professionals in the screening of distress among cancer patients. Similarly, the study indicates the importance of screening in normalizing patient's distress and enabling practitioners to identify issues in a short time and act swiftly. There are a few concerns that the screening process does not identify specific problems. However, the study indicated that the tool is highly useful in primary screening and identification of particular distress indicators that can be followed up by medical practitioners.
Reference
O'Connor, M., Tanner, P. B., Miller, L., Watts, K. J., & Musiello, T. (2017). Detecting Distress: Introducing Routine Screening in a Gynecologic Cancer Setting. Clinical journal of oncology nursing , 21 (1), 79-85.
