Nurse–patient relations in older Italian oncology nurses

Background: Oncology nurses should meet specific caring needs requested from cancer patients and their related families. Thus, oncology nurses suffer from several stressful working conditions, heavy working conditions like relationships with other healthcare professionals and dealing with patient conditions, insufficient training and a lack of time for end-of-life care, unresolved cumulative grief and loss, and a low expression of emotions. This study aimed to assess nurse–patient interactions, especially among older oncology nurses who reported longer work experience in oncology settings.

Methodology: An online nationwide investigation was carried out among older Italian oncology nurses. The “Caring Nurse-Patient Interactions Scale” (CNPI) was administered. The CNPI explored 4 sub-dimensions: clinical, relational, humanistic, and comforting care.

Results: A total of 16 older Italian oncology nurses (aged 55-64 years) were enrolled and very low levels of nurse–patient interactions were found (clinical: 31.81±8.05; relational: 22.69±5.30; humanistic: 13.25±3.86; comforting care: 10.38±2.60).

Conclusions: Oncology settings could decrease nurse–patient relations, since the oncology nature of the relationship could negatively affect them. Thus, further intervention, especially among older nurses, will be performed to improve this relationship.