Nursing Students' Perspectives on Assisting Cancer Patients.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to examine the experiences of student nurses who have provided care to cancer patients.

METHODS

A mixed method approach consisting of semistructured focus groups ( = 61) and a survey questionnaire ( = 129) was used in the study. Student nurses were first interviewed, and then, a questionnaire was developed for them to answer. Following the content analysis, three themes and 19 subthemes were identified. Frequency and percent were used for qualitative data.

RESULTS

Among the student nurses, 80.6% reported that working with cancer patients was "difficult." Difficulties experienced by the student nurses included patients rejecting their care, a large number of problems cases encountered when providing care to cancer patients, communication problems (38.0%), working with patients and attendants who fear death, and problems arising from family attendants who obstruct care. The majority of students experienced patients fearing death (28.7%) and felt feelings such as pity (71.1%), sadness (50.0%), and fear of cancer (41.9%) during their internships in oncology clinics.

CONCLUSIONS

Students should be supported by instructors and oncology nurses, and nursing curricula should contain topics on how to best approach cancer patients.