Empathetic nursing with mindful cognitive therapy for fatigue, depression, and negative emotions in leukemia patients undergoing long-term chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Leukemia is a broad term for blood cell cancer. Leukemia is divided into acute or chronic, depending on cell differentiation. Leukemia patients are prone to adverse reactions during chemotherapy, such as anxiety, depression, and even suicide, affecting prognosis. As a nursing model developed by three well-known cognitive psychologists, empathetic nursing with mindfulness cognitive therapy (ENMCT) can effectively reduce anxiety and depression and improve the quality of life in patients with chronic disease. AIM: To explore the effect of ENMCT on cancer-induced fatigue, hope level, and negative emotions in patients with long-term leukemia chemotherapy. METHODS: A total of 103 patients with long-term leukemia chemotherapy diagnosed and treated in our hospital from July 2017 to October 2019 were enrolled and randomly assigned to observation and control groups using the random number table approach. Fifty-one patients in the control group received routine nursing, while 52 patients in the observation group received empathic nursing with mindfulness cognitive therapy. After three months of nursing care, cancer-induced fatigue was measured with the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS), hope level with the Herth Hope Index (HHI), and negative emotion with the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA)/Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD). Self-management (Chinese Strategies Used by People to Promote Health) was also recorded. RESULTS: The observation group’s total scores in behavior, cognition, emotion, feeling, and PFS were lower than the control group after the intervention (P < 0.05). Keeping close contact with others, the attitude of taking positive actions, the attitude toward reality and future, and the total HHI score were higher in the observation group than the control group (P < 0.05). The observation group’s HAMA and HAMD scores were lower than the control group (P < 0.05). The observation group’s positive attitude, self-decision, and self-relief scores were greater than the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Empathetic nursing with cognitive mindfulness therapy is beneficial in improving cancer-related fatigue, negative emotions, expectation level, and self-management ability in patients with long-term leukemia chemotherapy.