Sümeyra Mihrap İlter     Özlem Ovayolu Nimet Ovayolu

Aim: The study was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of inhaler aromatherapy on pain experienced by patients diagnosed with cancer during port catheterization procedure.

Method: The study was conducted at two institutions in the Southeastern Anatolia Region.Before the study, written-oral permission was obtained from the related institutions, Gaziantep University Ethics Committee and patients. The sample of the study was determined by using the power analysis.Intervention and control groups were determined by using simple random sample and the study was completed with 60 patients.  The data of the study were collected by using questionnaire and the form of vital signs. Pain and the adherence to the procedure were evaluated by using Visual Analog Scale – VAS). The Inhaler aromatherapy was administered only to intervention group; the questionnaire was applied before the procedure and pain level experienced during the insertion of port catheterization was evaluated by using VAS. Then, three drops of the mixture, which was prepared by diluting orange, lavender and daisy oil in the ratio of 1:1:1 with 70 cc distilled water, was poured on sterile sponge and placed 10 cm away from the patient, and inhaler aromatherapy was administered during the procedure (approximately 15 minutes). No intervention was performed on patients in the control group during port catheterization except for the routine practices of the clinic; only questionnaire and VAS were applied. The data obtained from the study were evaluated in the computer environment by using student t, one way anova, mann whitney U, kruskal wallis, paired t test, and correlation analysis.

Outcomes: It was found that pain mean score of the intervention group was 6.2±1.6 before the procedure, decreased to 5.0±1.2 during the procedure, and increased to 5.5±1.2 again after the procedure; whereas, pain score mean of the control group was 6.0±0.9 before the procedure, increased to 7.4±1.4 during the procedure, and decreased to 6.5±1.6 after procedure (p<0.01). Also it was determined that while the adherence of the intervention group to the procedure was 8.1±2.0, adherence of the control group to the procedure was 7.2±1.5 (p<0.05).

Conclusion and Suggestions: It was observed that inhaler aromatherapy which was administered during the port catheterization procedure was effective especially in reducing pain experienced by the patients during the procedure and making them have adherence to the procedure. Thus, in the controlling of pain experienced during the invasive interventions, it can be recommended for inhale aromatherapy to be involved in nursing interventions in addition to the current institution protocols.

Key Words: Oncology, patient, inhaler aromatherapy, port catheter, pain, nursing

Correspondence: Nimet Ovayolu, PhD, RN, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey (ovayolu@gantep.edu.tr).