Purpose/objectives: To gain insight into how and why patients' perceptions of nurses' knowledge about cancer and its treatments relate to quality nursing care.

Design: Qualitative study inspired by Giorgi's approach to phenomenology.

Setting: An oncology ward in a regional hospital in Norway.

Sample: 20 patients (10 women and 10 men). Most received life-prolonging and symptom-relieving treatment, whereas 4 had the possibility of being cured.

Methods: In-depth interviews were tape recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. The text was read as a whole, condensed into units of meaning, and clustered into themes of importance. Finally, the consistency between identified themes and the general structure of the interviews was checked.

Findings: Patients regarded knowledge about cancer and its treatment as basic in nursing and took for granted that nurses had this competency. Three themes were identified that explained why the knowledge was important: (a) it makes patients feel safe and secure and alleviates suffering by providing useful information, (b) it prevents and alleviates suffering and insecurity during chemotherapy, and (c) it alleviates suffering by relieving side effects caused by the treatment and symptoms caused by the disease.

Conclusions: Patients appreciated meeting nurses who had experience and could combine clinical and biologic knowledge and nursing skills with a human touch. In addition, nurses alleviated patients' bodily and existential suffering and made them feel safe and secure.

Implications For Nursing: Experienced, effective nurses with knowledge about cancer and its treatments are needed in oncology wards to provide optimal care to patients.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1188/10.ONF.436-442DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

knowledge cancer
16
alleviates suffering
12
patients' perceptions
8
perceptions nurses'
8
nurses' knowledge
8
cancer treatment
8
quality nursing
8
cancer treatments
8
feel safe
8
knowledge
6

Similar Publications

Background: The online nature of decision aids (DAs) and related e-tools supporting women's decision-making regarding breast cancer screening (BCS) through mammography may facilitate broader access, making them a valuable addition to BCS programs.

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the scientific evidence on the impacts of these e-tools and to provide a comprehensive assessment of the factors associated with their increased utility and efficacy.

Methods: We followed the 2020 PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and conducted a search of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases from August 2010 to April 2023.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To explore the perceived utility and effect of simplified radiology reports on oncology patients' knowledge and feasibility of large language models (LLMs) to generate such reports.

Materials And Methods: This study was approved by the Institute Ethics Committee. In phase I, five state-of-the-art LLMs (Generative Pre-Trained Transformer-4o [GPT-4o], Google Gemini, Claude Opus, Llama-3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

How Do People Living With Cancer Navigate Health Systems?: A Multi-Grounded Theory.

Cancer Nurs

January 2025

Authors' Affiliation: Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland, Springfield, Queensland, Australia.

Background: Cancer and its physiological and psychological effects are well defined, but how these factors impact health system navigation for people living with cancer (PLWC) is lacking.

Objective: To develop a theory explaining how PLWC navigate health systems to meet their health and well-being needs.

Methods: This study used multi-grounded theory to explain how PLWC navigate health systems to meet their needs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Development of a novel molecular probe for visualizing mesothelin on the tumor via positron emission tomography.

Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging

January 2025

Institute of Radiation Medicine, Fudan University, Xietu Road 2094, Shanghai, 200032, China.

Objectives: Mesothelin (MSLN) is an antigen that is overexpressed in various cancers, and its interaction with tumor-associated cancer antigen 125 plays a multifaceted role in tumor metastasis. The serum MSLN expression level can be detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; however, non-invasive visualization of its expression at the tumor site is currently lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a molecular probe for imaging MSLN expression through positron emission tomography (PET).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Endometrial cancer (EC) is a malignant tumor with various histological subtypes and molecular phenotypes. The evaluation of drug resistance is important for cancer treatment. Progesterone resistance is the major challenge in EC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!