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Summary
Lung cancer patients are concerned with several physical and psychosocial
disorders - caused by the illness itself and its treatment - that in turn lead to several
supportive care needs. Thus, if nurses are to satisfy their needs and to offer the best
quality of care, they need to identify the patient‟s supportive care needs in more detail.
Aim: To describe the unmet supportive care needs among patients suffering from lung
cancer during the chemotherapy phase at a University Hospital (CHU) in Switzerland.
To explore a potential relation between the unmet supportive care needs and the
patient‟s age, gender and tabagism. Theoretical framework: The study is based on
Orem‟s Self-Care Deficit theory. Method: The study employs a cross-sectional
descriptive correlational design. In the outpatients' oncological department of a CHU,
26 patients were recruited following the non-probability sampling method. While the
data were collected through two self-administered questionnaires (Supportive Care
Needs Survey Short Form 34 and a socio-demographical questionnaire), the medical
data were derived from the patients' records. Results: Our study finds the most
relevant unmet needs among patients being those linked to the psychological and
physical/daily living domains; followed by informational domain as well as care and
support. The two most prevalent unmet supportive care needs (65.38%) were: “Being
informed about things you can do to help yourself to get well” and “Uncertainty about
the future”. With respect to differences in dissatisfaction in relation to medical data
(gender, age, tabagism), it seems that women are more dissatisfied with all domains of
supportive care needs. While patients aged 65 or more are mainly dissatisfied with
psychological, patient care and support, and physical/daily living domains, patients
younger than 65 are mainly dissatisfied with sexuality domain. Non-smokers prior to
the diagnostic are mostly unsatisfied with physical/daily living, information, and