Feasibility, safety, and acceptability of a 4-week nurse-led comprehensive rehabilitation program for women after mastectomy: A non-randomized control trial.

[BACKGROUND] Comprehensive nurse-led rehabilitation programs to enhance the recovery and quality of life of women after mastectomy are well established in developed countries. Despite the increasing burden of breast cancer, access to structured post-mastectomy rehabilitation remains limited in many low-resource settings. Nurse-led programs have the potential to ensure timely intervention, enhance patient adherence, and reduce the long-term complications associated with mastectomy. This study aimed to assess the feasibility, safety, acceptability, and effectiveness of a nurse-led comprehensive rehabilitation program for women after mastectomy.

[MATERIALS AND METHODS] This was a non-randomized, parallel-group quasi-experimental trial (1:1 allocation ratio) conducted among ten (five each in the experimental and control groups) women who had undergone breast surgery and were recruited using a purposive sampling technique from a tertiary care hospital in India. Women in the experimental group underwent a comprehensive rehabilitation program that included supervised physical therapy, educational strategies, multimedia instructional packages, and standard care. The primary outcomes of feasibility, safety, and acceptability were assessed by the recruitment rate, missing data from questionnaires, follow-up response rates, rate of serious adverse events, dropout rate, and adherence rate. Secondary outcomes were measured in terms of muscle strength, range of motion (ROM), and health-related quality of life. Quantitative analyses including descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used for statistical analyses.

[RESULTS] This study demonstrated the feasibility, safety, and acceptability of a nurse-led, comprehensive rehabilitation program. All approached women consented to participate (100% consent rate), and no participants dropped out. Serious adverse events were not observed. The adherence rate in the intervention group was 85%. Significant improvements were observed in the ROM ( < 0.05) and health-related quality of life ( < 0.05) in the experimental group compared with those in the control group. However, no statistically significant improvement in muscle strength was observed between groups.

[CONCLUSIONS] A nurse-led comprehensive rehabilitation program for women after mastectomy is a feasible, safe, and acceptable intervention that can enhance recovery outcomes in resource-limited settings. This study provides foundational evidence supporting the integration of nurse-led rehabilitation programs into standard post-mastectomy care. Future large-scale trials are recommended to validate these findings and optimize intervention strategies for widespread implementation.