Experiences of oncology nurses regarding nutritional process of cancer patients: A phenomenological perspective

6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

August 15-17, 2016 London, UK

Ozlem Aslan, Betul Tosun, Canan Yaranoglu and Mustafa Ozturk

G�¼lhane Military Medical Academy, Turkey

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Nutritional problems lead challanging situations in cancer patients. Nurse�s role is crucial in nutrition with health care team. Experiences of oncology nurses during nutritional process of cancer patients are not sufficiently addressed. The aim of this study was to describe and understand the experiences of oncology nurses concerning nutritional process of cancer patients. A descriptive phenomenologic design was used to understand the experiences of oncology nurses. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 9 oncology nurses from an education and research hospital. Interviews were recorded digitally and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using Colaizzi method. Four main themes concerning experiences of oncology nurses were practices, suggestions, positive experiences and negative experiences. They coordinated the nutrition with health care team. They gave nutritional suggestions. Positive experiences were on routine clinical practices, environmental arrangements, patient preferences, team work and contributions of family caregivers. However, they didn�t assessed patients systematically for nutrition. Patient�s symptoms, nurse�s feeling of helplessness and insufficiency, poor nutritional status and poor communication with inpatients were negative experiences. The results provided health care professionals a benefical information to understand the experiences of nurses regarding nutritional process in cancer patients. Health care professionals should 1) be aware of experiences of oncology nurses communicating with patients for the longest period of time during care process, 2) use these experiences to plan and implement the high quality of nutritional care during cancer trajectory.

Biography :

Özlem Aslan completed her PhD from Gülhane Military Medical Academy School of Nursing. Her dissertation was on oncology nursing. She has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals. She is working as an Associate Professor and the Chief of Fundamentals of Nursing Department in School of Nursing at Gülhane Military Medical Academy.

Email: oozlem.aslan@gmail.com