Nurses' perceptions of the patients' emotional needs when undergoing chemotherapy in the oncology setting

Abstract

This qualitative study was conducted in the oncology hospital in Malta, with the purpose of exploring the nurses' perceptions on the patients' emotional needs when undergoing chemotherapy within an oncology setting. It sought to understand whether nurses believed that patients undergoing chemotherapy have emotional needs, how do they notice that the patients have emotional needs, what can be done to support these emotional needs and the barriers nurses find in order to give the necessary emotional support. For this study, eleven nurses working in the oncology hospital were interviewed and the data was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis of the interviews revealed that these nurses agreed that patients who are undergoing chemotherapy have emotional needs that can be due to the physical sideeffects of the cytotoxic treatment. Hence, these findings indicate that nurses are aware of these emotional needs but the problem arises in how the healthcare workers deal with these emotional needs. It was evident from the study that it was not an easy task to provide the necessary emotional support for these patients. The first thing that was mentioned by the interviewers was the development of the therapeutic relationship with the patient. This can be done through information giving or else through basic nursing tasks. In this way, the nurse can recognize both verbally and non-verbally cues which indicate that the patient needs support. However, one finding that emerged from this study was that it seemed to be not always possible to give the necessary support because healthcare professionals encounter environmental and personal factors that hinder them from giving the necessary support. The participants claimed that these barriers are workload, lack of privacy, do not have the necessary training and education, staff conflicts and afraid of being drawn into their emotional world. Participants taking part in this study have also suggested some measures that can be done to minimize these barriers such as training to improve the knowledge and adequate rooms where the patients can talk freely without being overheard.