|
Maureen McDermott, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Haematology/Oncology, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. |
The number of patients suffering from cancer has steadily increased in recent years mainly due to an ageing population. Add to this, an increasing number of chemotherapeutic agents and a multitude of regimes, it therefore becomes imperative to educate the bedside nurse on the care of the chemotherapy patient. This paper aims to explore the educational needs of non-oncology trained registered nurses working in areas where chemotherapy is given to patients. A questionnaire was sent to non-oncology trained registered nurses in areas where chemotherapy is given. It asked them to state what their educational needs were, if any, and if they would be interested in educational material on particular subjects. Those subjects were: cytotoxic safety, side-effects of chemotherapy, how protocols work, extravasation, psychosocial aspects of the cancer diagnosis and carcinogenesis. In the first section where the nurses responded to an open ended question as to what their educational needs were, chemotherapy drugs, protocols and cytotoxic safety were the most commonly mentioned categories. In the section asking if they required educational material on set subjects, carcinogenesis, side-effects of chemotherapy, psychosocial aspects of cancer, and extravasation were the top four scorers.
A learning package has been developed in response to these learners' needs. and it is hoped to trial it very soon.
Poster display at St. Vincent's Campus Research Symposium, September 1993.
[top]
This is an abstract only.
[top]