Date of Award

Spring 4-7-2025

Document Type

Restricted Access Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Michelle Ullery

Second Advisor

Katie Martin

Third Advisor

Kathleen Clark

Abstract

Anxiety is experienced at high levels in patients receiving chemotherapy or immunotherapy for a cancer diagnosis. The physical symptoms of anxiety can mimic a hypersensitivity reaction to these anticancer drugs that could lead to unnecessary changes to the treatment plan and potentially limit further treatment options. This scholarly project identifies the relationships between music listening and anxiety, anxiety and oncology-related treatments, anxiety and environment, and the effect of music listening on anxiety during oncology-related infusions. An evidence-based practice project was conducted to determine the efficacy of music listening in anxiety reduction in this setting. Ten participants listened to music of their choice for 20 minutes prior to beginning a new cancer treatment regimen and completed a visual analog scale measuring anxiety before and after implementation of the music listening intervention. Qualitative data was collected following the intervention as well. There was an overall decrease in anxiety scores from pre-intervention to post-intervention, from an average of 4.9 pre-intervention to an average of 2.7 post-intervention. This finding indicates that music listening may be an effective intervention for reducing anxiety during chemotherapy infusions, and overall positive feedback was provided by the participants. Music listening provides a holistic, artistic method of anxiety reduction that can prevent unnecessary treatment plan changes as well as provide patients with cancer with a healing environment in which to receive their treatments. Offering music listening to the introductory oncology education materials as an option for use during infusions is one area in which positive change may occur because of the findings of this scholarly project.

Identifier

SC 11.DNP.2025.Sina.C.E.

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