Assessment of neutropenia-related quality of life in a clinical setting.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To examine how neutropenia affects quality of life (QOL) and explore strategies to assess neutropenia-related QOL in clinical practice. DATA SOURCES Published articles, abstracts, conference proceedings, and clinical practice guidelines. DATA SYNTHESIS Neutropenia can have a detrimental effect on the QOL of patients receiving chemotherapy. A neutropenia-related QOL questionnaire can help nurses better identify patients at risk for developing neutropenia and monitor patients who already have it. In some cases, the questionnaire may be the first step in the initiation of interventions to improve patient care. Ideally, the QOL questionnaire should be easy to use, provide clinically meaningful information, and be easily adapted from existing QOL measurement tools. CONCLUSIONS Effective implementation of QOL assessments into clinical practice can lead to the initiation of interventions that may improve neutropenia-related QOL in patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Nurses can enhance their clinical judgment and affect patient treatment by implementing a questionnaire that assesses patients' neutropenia-related QOL.