The framework and future prospects of radiological nursing as advanced practice nursing care

Abstract

The previous role of radiological nursing was to care for patients receiving radiation therapy at medical facilities. However, the recipients of radiological nursing care have now come to include people under actual radiation exposure and those in fear of radiation exposure. Radiological nursing currently covers a wide range of care for all stages of development and life from fetuses to the elderly, and from patients to the general population and healthcare workers. Radiological nursing consists of two specialties: radiation exposure nursing care and medical radiation nursing care.

Building the foundation of the radiological nursing specialties requires training nursing professionals to have high nursing intervention skills. Advanced practice nurses should provide active care for abnormal or emergent states of radiation exposure and have excellent knowledge of the health effects of radiation as well as the usual conditions in hospitals, factories and the community. Both specialties recognize radiation protection as an academic base because the care, reduction and prevention of radiation exposure are common to both. It is recommended that the two specialties of radiological nursing and the specialty of clinical cancer nursing, which involves radiation therapy care, be fused in the future; this will complete the framework of highly advanced radiological nursing care.