Breast unit and caring, gordon nursing model and NNN taxonomies: the nursing care planning from efficacy in trials to effectiveness in clinical practice

Abstract

Background: The Breast Unit, regulated by international guidelines, is a new opportunity to cure and to care that allows women with breast cancer to deal with their illness supported by a Multidisciplinary Team. The complexity of this disease requires adopting the bio-psycho-social-spiritual paradigm, typical of Caring, focused on “taking care of the person” rather than focusing only on illness treatment. Materials and methods: In this study 10 women with breast cancer in Trieste's Breast Unit were enrolled and “Gordon Nursing Model” has been used. NANDA-I connections with NOC and NIC support Diagnostic Reasoning. NANDA-I defines the person's health problems of exclusive nursing competence; the NOC Taxonomy defines the relative health outcomes shared with the person and the NIC Taxonomy defines the Nursing Interventions. Results: The main Dysfunctional Patterns found were the “Coping and Stress Tolerance” and the “Self-Perception and Self-Concept”. For the first pattern, the NANDA-I diagnosis was “Ineffective Coping (00069)”, the NOC identified was “Coping (1302)”, while the NIC was “Coping Enhancement (5230)”. For the second pattern the NANDA-I Diagnosis was “Disturbed Body Image (00118)”; NOC: “Body image (1200)”; NIC: “Body Image Enhancement (5220)”. Conclusions: This study shows the importance and the effectiveness of having a tool with solid scientific background that allows a complete Assessment. The Gordon Model turns out to be “complete” (it investigates the person in its totality), “fast” (it reduces the assessment time) and with a “high scientific value” (it uses the NNN Taxonomies that allow a wide variety of choices, to make research and to compare results on an international scale).