Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong L (1,8), Chan SY(2, 8), Wong KY (3, 8), Chan CS Angela (4,8), Chun OK (5,8), Tsang WF(6,8), Lee MH(7,8)
Affiliation :
Surgical Department, QMH & TWH (1); Surgical Department, QEH (2), Kowloon East Cluster Breast Centre, United Christian Hospital (3); Surgical Department, NDH(4); Surgical Department, KWH (5); Surgical Department, POH (6); Surgical Department, RTSKH (7); Surgical Nursing Advisory Group (Breast Care) (8)
Introduction :
Breast cancer is the most common female cancer in Hong Kong. The improved detection and advanced technology in treatment of breast cancer has led to fewer overall deaths. More and more attention has been paid in the recent years on the early detection of recurrence and support and counseling to deal with quality of life issues during survivorship care. Nurses’ knowledge on survivorship care planning should be enhanced with the improvement of service. Therefore, a survey on surgical nurses’ knowledge was conducted.
Objectives :
Conduct a survey on surgical nurses’ knowledge on breast cancer survivorship care
Methodology :
A convenient sample was collected from Department of Surgery of Hospital Authority hospitals in November 2019. Participants working in breast cancer related care settings including Breast Centre and in-patient wards were invited to fill in the questionnaire. Questionnaire on survivorship knowledge developed by Lester1 was used.
Result & Outcome :
Result: A total of 126 questionnaires (n=126) was collected. 84% (106/126) participants believed it is a nursing responsibility to address cancer survivor, while only 27% (29/126) participants reported they are familiar with cancer survivorship care planning. 17% (21/126) participants thought a patient with cancer is termed a survivor at the diagnosis; 55% (69/126) participants thought cancer survivorship care planning should be implemented at the time of diagnosis; and a survivorship care planning consists of a treatment summary and survivorship care plan. 73% (92/126) participants reported health promotion should include maintaining healthy weight, regular physical exercise and dietary pattern and smoking cessation. Regarding health surveillance, 63% (79/126) participants chose regular history taking, 73% (92/126) chose regular mammogram, 80% (101/126) participants chose education on self-breast examination to detect recurrence, 47% (59/126) chose genetic testing, while 20% (25/126) chose to stick to endocrine treatment. Regarding comfortable on providing survivorship care on short-term and long-term side effects of treatment, ranking from highest to lowest percentage was: body image concern: 70% (88/126), lymphedema care: 57% (72/126), distress, depression and anxiety: 47% (59/126), pain and neuropathy: 42% (53/126), fatigue: 26% (33/126), bone health: 15% (19/126), sexual health: 10 % (13/126), cognitive impairment: 5% (6/126), and infertility: 2% (3/126). Conclusion: Cancer survivor care is becoming an important nursing care component in clinical practice. There are room of improvement of surgical nurses’ knowledge of survivorship care planning. To provide quality care for the survivors, education on survivorship care should be incorporated and emphasized in the future specialty training program.
