Abstract

Aim: It is aimed to determine the effectiveness of non-pharmacological methods used in the management of fatigue symptoms in patients in relieving fatigue.

Material and Methods: Between 21-28 February 2022, master’s, doctoral and medical specialization theses written between 1992-2021 were searched in the “Turkey CoHE National Thesis Center” database with the keywords “non-pharmacological”, “non-pharmacological, fatigue” and “fatigue”. Sixty-six of the 291 theses found were included in the study and were tabulated in terms of registration years, subject, sample group, research type and purpose, fatigue assessment methods, application, and research results.

Results: In the research, it was determined that 38 of the theses were doctoral theses, one of them was a medical specialization thesis and 27 of them were master’s theses. In the studies, it was seen that four of the non-pharmacological methods were applied in children and 62 of them were applied in adults. When we look at the theses, it was found that methods including acupressure (n=1), relaxation exercise (n=1), music (n=1), and aromatherapy+massage (n=1) were not effective in relieving fatigue, but all other non-pharmacological methods (n=62) were effective and statistically significant.

Conclusion: According to 66 evaluated studies, it was concluded that non-pharmacological methods are effective in reducing fatigue and these methods can be used in patients. Nurses are recommended to apply non-pharmacological methods to relieve fatigue symptoms and to use fatigue assessment scales.