Evaluation of Cancer Management by Means of Mini-MAC Scale in Patients Receiving Palliative Care

Abstract

The increase in cancer and chronic conditions incidence in Poland and worldwide necessitates an intensive development of palliative medicine and care. It is reflected predominantly in helping patients deal with somatic, psychological and spiritual problems, as well as satisfying the needs of the patients and their closest ones. Working with chronically ill patients involves mostly accompanying and being in touch with human suffering. The problem concerns not only the subjects, but also their caregivers. The disease and the physical, psychological, social and spiritual suffering related to it result in problems and a necessity of living in poor health. The most efficient way of helping patients and their caregivers is to actively support the disease management process. The aim of this paper was the evaluation of cancer management of patients receiving palliative residential and home care by means of Mini-MAC scale. The test method used was a diagnostic survey method with standardized Mini-MAC scale. The studied group comprised 120 patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative care in the Podlaskie voivodship. Results. In the studied group, the destructive style, which was presented by the strategies of “helplessnesshopelessness” or “anxious preoccupation”, slightly dominated over the constructive one: “fighting spirit” and “positive focus”. Conclusions. The results of the study show that, in the studied group, the dominating strategy was the “anxious preoccupation”, the least chosen attitude towards fighting cancer was the “fighting spirit”.