Objective: To clarify the nursing interventions provided by radiotherapy nurses to patients and their families and also the difficulties they are facing when caring for the patients.
Method: A self-administered questionnaire was sent via mail to 800 nurses who were working in randomly selected hospitals which had 300 or more beds within the Kinki area. Researchers used the data provided by the nurses ［in the form of comments or descriptions］ to clarify the specific roles/interventions of the nurses, the difficulties they faced when giving these interventions and how they felt when administering care to the patient.
Results: 438 questionnaires were collected via mail from the participants ［53.5%］ and categorized. In the category “Nursing Interventions” the following points were extracted for analysis; ‘Assist in daily activities’, ‘Physical assessment before and after treatment’, ‘Care for relieving the symptoms accompanied by radiotherapy diagnosis and treatment’, ‘Responds to the questions from the patients and also provide information to them’, ‘Collaboration and adjustment with other professionals in the medical team’, ‘Make a nursing care plan’ and ‘Protection for the patient and nursing staffs’. Two additional categories addressed issues related to the difficulties in implementing these interventions with the following information being extracted for analysis; ‘Anxiety when caring caused by deficiency of knowledge about radiation therapy and radiotherapy nursing’, ‘Anxiety in safety management caused by deficiency of knowledge regarding radiation protection’.
Discussion: The results suggest nurses have no confidence due to a lack of knowledge which leads to difficulties. Current education and training is insufficient and needs to be re-evaluated at all levels.