Symptom management theory: Disciplinary knowledge guiding nursing practice

Symptom management theory (SMT), developed in 1994 by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, aims to guide research and clinical nursing practice in the field of chronic disease. It places the lived experience of symptoms at the heart of care, encourages self-management, and provides a framework to assess, guide choices, target interventions, and determine how they should be implemented. The aim is to help patients better manage their symptoms and improve their quality of life. SMT has evolved into a symptom science that examines symptom clusters to identify those most at risk of experiencing a higher symptom burden. Nurses must pay attention to the close relationships between symptoms within a symptom cluster in order to identify any triggering symptoms that could lead to the development or exacerbation of other symptoms.