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Nurses attitudes and practices towards provision of survivorship care for people with a haematological cancer on completion of treatment

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess cancer nurses’ perceptions of responsibility, confidence levels and practice in relation to survivorship care for people with a haematological malignancy on completion of treatment.

Methods

A prospective cross-sectional survey was conducted. An online survey was distributed to members of two Australian professional bodies.

Results

A total of 310 cancer nurses participated in the study, representing a response rate of 28%. The participants generally agreed that all survivorship care items were part of their role. Of the 17 survivorship care items, the three items receiving the lowest confidence scores were discussing fertility issues, discussing employment and financial issues and discussing how to identify signs of cancer recurrence. The least performed survivorship care items were discussing fertility issues, communicating survivorship care with primary healthcare team (i.e. general practitioners) and discussing sexuality issues. Older age, more years of experience, having a post-graduate qualification and working in non-metropolitan area were associated with higher levels of perception of responsibilities and confidence (p < 0.05). The top ranked barriers to survivorship care were reported to be lack of end-of-treatment consultation dedicated to survivorship care, time and an appropriate physical space for delivering care.

Conclusions

Cancer nurses perceive key aspects of survivorship care to be part of their role, however there remains variations in practice and confidence with respect to implementation of survivorship care practices.

Implications for cancer survivors

Interventions that focus on enhancing the capability of cancer nurses and eliminating barriers identified in this study have the potential to improve quality survivorship care provision.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Cancer Nurses Society of Australia, Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand Nurses Group and all the nurses who participated in this study.

Funding

Prof Raymond Chan is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Health Professional Research Fellowship (1070997). The contents of the published material are solely the responsibility of the Administering Institution, a Participating Institution, or individual authors and do not reflect the views of the NHMRC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Care Services, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Herston, Queensland, Australia

    Raymond Javan Chan, Elise Button, Alison Thomas & Patsy Yates

  2. School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia

    Raymond Javan Chan, Elise Button & Patsy Yates

  3. Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia

    Raymond Javan Chan, Elise Button & Patsy Yates

  4. Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre, Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia

    Priscilla Gates

  5. Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education, Herston, Queensland, Australia

    Patsy Yates

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  1. Raymond Javan Chan
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Correspondence to Raymond Javan Chan.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Research involving human participants or animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Chan, R.J., Button, E., Thomas, A. et al. Nurses attitudes and practices towards provision of survivorship care for people with a haematological cancer on completion of treatment. Support Care Cancer 26, 1401–1409 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3972-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3972-5

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