Nurse students’ willingness and capability for oncology care provision

Abstract

Abstract Background Oncology care is a growing and very specific area. Provision of care for oncology patients requires specialized knowledge and skills, and high nurses' motivation. The aim of this study is to examine student nurses' career plans as well as their readiness to provide qualified in-patient and out-patient oncology care. Methods The study is a part of a wider project observing nurses' capability to provide high quality care for patients with oncology diseases. Data were collected by direct group self-administered questionnaire amongst 123 fourth year student nurses in Medical University - Pleven, Bulgaria. Questions were directed to students' opinion about the readiness to work, preferences for oncology units, willingness to provide comprehensive care, motivation to improve their qualification etc. Data processing was performed by SPSS v. 24. Results Willingness to practice oncology care after graduation report 45.24% of the respondents while 54.76% don't prefer to work at this area. Preferable units for work are Clinic of oncology surgery (73.68%), followed by departments of chemotherapy (18.52%) and radiation treatment. Although students said they must have special competencies for oncology care, no significant part of them appreciated their knowledge as excellent (11.90%) or very good (23.81%). About two thirds of study subjects (64.29%) assess their competences as good or lower. Willingness to practice oncology care is significantly associated with higher self-assessment (p < 0.05). Students assess the necessity of improvement of their competences after graduation through postgraduate courses (19.06%), specialization in oncology care (47.62%) and continuing education in a Master's degree (11.90%). Conclusions Implications include providing more intensive faculty mentoring in oncology care to increase the number of nurses seeking this professional area after graduation and help with possibilities for future enhancement of their professional competencies. Key messages Most of the new graduated nurses don’t want to provide oncology care. Self-assessment of their specific competences is not high which might decrease their motivation to work in this professional area. Faculty mentoring in oncology care should be more intensive. Moreover, possibilities for improvement of competences by postgraduate courses, specialization and continuing education must be available.