Abstract:
The purpose of this descriptive research was to examine the adaptation of cervical cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. A purposive sample of 108 cervical patients was recruited from the National Cancer Institute. The samples were all critical stage cervical cancer patients who were receiving radiotherapy. Data was collected three times, once before the patients received radiotherapy and in the second and fourth weeks of treatment. The researcher collected data using questionnaires based on demographic location, perceptions of the disease and patient adaptation before conducting a statistical analysis thorough the SPSS Windows program using frequency distribution, percentage, mean, the Friedman test, the Wilcoxon signed ranks test and the Spearman rank-order correlation co-efficient. The results showed that cervical cancer patients had different physical adaptations before receiving radiotherapy in the second week, and between the second and fourth weeks with a statistical significance of .05. Patient's self-esteem differed befor receiving radiotherapy and in the second week, but was not statistically significant at a .05 level. Similarly, the patient's interdependence differed before receiving radiotherapy and in the second week and fourth week, but was not statistically significant at a .05 level. The severity of the diagnosed disease was correlated with physical, self-esteem, change of role and interdependence adaptations in the cervical cancer patients before receiving radiotherapy and in the second and fourth week, but no significant statistical relationship were found at a .05 level. There was a statistically significant and negative correlation between perception of the disease's severity, physical and self-esteem adaptations before receiving radiation at a .01 level. No statistically significant correlation was found between the perception of the disease's severity and the adaptation to changes in role and interdependence among patients before receiving radiation and in the second and fourth weeks at a .05 level.