The nursing care of lung cancer patients: emphasizing chemotherapy.

The experience of coping with lung cancer--from diagnosis to treatment to inevitable death--is indescribably difficult for the cancer patient. The nurse, with her basic knowledge of the disease process, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, and by employing her sensitivity to the patient's emotional needs, can ease the pain of this experience. The nurse must use her technical knowledge and understanding to provide the patient with the knowledge he needs to participate in his own care as well as the emotional strength to deal with the physiologic strains of the disease.