Oncology Nurses' Perspectives and Practices Toward the Delivery of Cancer Survivorship Care in Hong Kong

Abstract

Background: Despite tremendous progress in understanding the unmet needs of cancer survivors, our understanding of oncology nurses' perspectives and practices in the delivery of survivorship care is inadequate.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess oncology nurses' perceptions about their responsibility and frequency of delivery of survivorship care to cancer patients and to examine the factors influencing such care.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 81 nurses working in the oncology unit of hospitals in Hong Kong. Participants completed an investigator-developed questionnaire designed to assess oncology nurses' perceptions of responsibility, practices, and barriers regarding the provision of survivorship care for cancer patients.

Results: Results revealed discrepancies between oncology nurses' perceptions of responsibility and practices, with high levels of perceptions of various survivorship care as their responsibility but low levels in delivery of such care. Despite that discussing and managing pain was agreed by most oncology nurses as their responsibility (95.1%), 34.6% of them have never managed survivors' pain. Besides, 33.3% of nurses have never discussed and managed survivors' sexuality issues. Lack of time (79.0%), inadequate educational resources for family members (59.3%), and lack of knowledge and skills (54.4%) were major factors that impeded survivorship care provision.

Conclusions: This study provides further evidence for inadequacies of oncology nurses in delivering survivorship care and their perceived barriers. Further studies are required to enhance our understanding of the strategies for improving the quality of cancer survivorship care.

Implications for practice: Results underscore the need to develop educational resources and enhance training in survivorship care for oncology nurses.