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For many lifetimes, patients and families have been telling nurses what is of special relevance or meaning to them, particularly during times of threatened health. Nurses have listened earnestly to these personal perspectives and reflections, realizing that significant information about the quality of these individuals' lives was being shared. Initially this information was used solely to individualize patient and family care in different healthcare settings. In the past few decades nurses have recognized that patients and families have similarities in their viewpoints on quality of life during health threats, and that they, as nurses, can use these to assist patients in order to have as positive a quality of life as possible. The combined patient/family and nurse points of view contribute to the ongoing effort to document the effectiveness of strategies that nurses use to try to contribute to patients' and families' quality of life. This provides rich opportunities to examine quality of life from nursing and patient/family perspectives that currently exist in oncology care and care of other chronic diseases.

From the time of inception of this book until this third edition, the purpose has always been to provide a reference on quality of life that reflects the voice of the patients and families who are receiving or have received care for cancer and the attention (in the form of research, theories, and practice) of their nurses. This book should be useful for oncology nurses in many healthcare settings, including inpatient units, outpatient clinics, ambulatory care centers, cancer centers, research centers, home care agencies, hospices, and many others. Furthermore, since the first edition we have …