The Status of Nursing Practice for Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy and Factors related to the Practice of Nursing.

Abstract

Abstract

The objective of this study was to clarify the status of nursing practice for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and factors related to the practice of nursing. A self-written questionnaire survey was carried out on 205 nurses engaged in cancer chemotherapy nursing. Responses to the questionnaire were retrieved from 160 nurses, of which 21 incomplete responses were excluded. The remaining 139 responses were subjected to analysis using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The survey revealed a high degree of practice for care concerning comprehension of symptoms of adverse reactions, care about mental aspects of the patient and care about understanding of the patient, whereas the degree of practice was low for care to be taken by intensive assessment of self-management and daily living activities. Among factors affecting nursing practice, statistical differences were demonstrated for the number of years of experience in chemotherapy nursing, job title, experience of attending training courses on chemotherapy nursing, type of hospital, and the presence or absence of nurses certified in chemotherapy nursing. The analysis showed a positive correlation between interest in chemotherapy nursing and degree of practice. These results suggested a need for a strategy that would reflect the care taken by looking intensively at daily living activities and knowledge thereof in caring for individual patients. The results also suggest the need to make efforts to evoke the interest of nurses and to enrich the educational system as part of the medical institutions.