Medical

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... rades the patients perception of breathlessness. This tool is patient centered, quick and easy to use and has the sensitivity required to determine minute changes. This tool is best used to measure the patients baseline previous to the treatment, during treatment and when the treatment plan changes. This will provide ongoing information of the efficiency of the treatment plan. Other assessment tools have been developed such as the Borg Scale or the Dyspnoea Assessment Questionnaire. However, those assessment tools do not confine the patient?s subjective symptoms and the effects these symptoms have on the patients? quality of life. Studies showed that the gold standard of reliable assessment is self-report and that the assessment needs to include the multidimensional aspects of the patient?s experience of breathlessness, as well as treatment interventions employed and their effectiveness. Therefore, psychosocial and spiritual assessment parameters include: - the patients awareness of the diagnosis, illness stage and prognosis - the patients values (what is most important for the patient in relation to treatment options) - the patients preferences (e.g. should antibiotics be given for an infection at the end of life?) - the patients expectations and desired outcomes from the treatment - what breathlessness means to the patient and how it effects his or her entire life. A broad ?history is essential to an accurate assessment of breathlessness in patients with advanced cancer. The nature, onset, duration and severity as well as associated symptoms, exacerbating or relieving activities and responses to previously used medications should be recorded. Such a history can reveal many underlying pathological problems. For example, sudden onset of dyspnoea may be a sign for infection or pulmonary embolism, whereas a gradual onset may be a sign for the development of pleural effusion. One can see that a broad assessment is vital to minimize distress and disability associated with breathlessness. It is only understandable that