The Theory: PREPARE ME

“To Nursing… may be able to provide the care that our clients need in maintaining their quality of life and being instrumental in “birthing” them to external life.”

Background
During the past decade, the incidence of cancer has significantly increased not only in the Philippines but also worldwide. Cancer has been associated with multifaceted issues and concerns regardless of stages of development. For patients with advanced progressive cancer, these problems are compounded, thus the need to develop interventions that can address the needs especially those those concerning the ability to be in control and maintaining their dignity.

Basic Assumptions and Concepts
PREPARE ME (Holistic Nursing Interventions) are the nursing interventions provided to address the multidimensional problems of cancer patients that can be given in any setting where patients choose to be confined. This program emphasizes a holistic approach to nursing care. PREPARE ME has the following components:

• Presence – being with another person during the times of need. This includes therapeutic communication, active listening, and touch.
• Reminisce Therapy – recall of past experiences, feelings and thoughts to facilitate adaptation to present circumstances.
• Prayer
• Relaxation-Breathing – techniques to encourage and elicit relaxation for the purpose of decreasing undesirable signs and symptoms such as pain, muscle tension, and anxiety.
• Meditation – encourages an elicit form of relaxation for the purpose of altering patient’s level of awareness by focusing on an image or thought to facilitate inner sight which helps establish connection and relationship with God. It may be done through the use of music and other relaxation techniques.
• Values Clarification – assisting another individual to clarify his own values about health and illness in order to facilitate effective decision making skills. Through this, the patient develops an open mind that will facilitate acceptance of disease state or may help deepen or enhance values. The process of values clarification helps one become internally consistent by achieving closer between what we do and what we feel

Quality of Life is a multifaceted construct that encompasses the individual's capacity and abilities with an aim of enriching life when it cannot longer be prolonged. This includes proper care of the body, mind, and spirit to maintain integrity of the whole person despite limitations brought by the present situation. This can be seen with the following dimensions brought by the present situation. This can be seen with the following dimensions of man - physical, psychological, social, religious, level of independence, environment, and spiritual.

Findings and Recommendations

1. Terminally-ill patients require holistic approach of nursing that encompasses the different aspects of man namely physical, psychological, social, religious, level of independence, environment, and spiritual. in this premise, patients with incurable illness, specially cancer patients, require a whole faceted care that will improve the quality of their life.
2. PREPARE ME Interventions are said to be effective in improving the quality of life of cancer patients. this can be further applied not only with terminally-ill patients but also promisingly introduced to those patients with acute and chronic diseases and those with prolonged hospital stays.
3. The utilization of the intervention as a basic part of care given to cancer patients is recommended, as well as the incorporation of the intervention in the basic nursing curriculum in the care of these patients. the said components of PREPARE ME must be introduced and focused during the training of nurses both in the academe and practice to answer the needs of this special kind of clients.
4. Development of training programs for care providers, as well as health care professionals where intervention is a part of treatment modalities, is also recommended.
5. For patients, an honest view and feedback regarding their illness and management, and obtaining their perceptions can lead to improvement of services and communication between patients with advanced progressive cancer, their families and health team.
6. Supportive environment where patients with advanced progressive cancer and the terminally-ill patients can attain dignity of dying with peace while their families are given the necessary support they need to cope up with. thus, healthcare professionals and family members have to provide this kind of venue whether in the home of hospital setting. This will maintain a holistic support for this special type of clients.