A pre-post evaluation of oncology healthcare providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices following the implementation of a complementary medicine practice guideline

Abstract

PURPOSE Complementary medicine (CM) use is prevalent among cancer patients, yet it is often not assessed by oncology healthcare providers (HCPs). The purpose of this study was to evaluate oncology HCPs’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices surrounding CM use before and after the implementation of a practice guideline focusing on standardizing assessment and documentation of CM. METHODS Oncology HCPs across a provincial cancer agency were invited to participate in the study. The implementation strategy included an initial education session for HCPs and standardized CM assessment forms. Pre-post surveys assessing knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to CM were completed by HCPs prior to attending the education session and following the 4-month implementation period. Paired t-tests were conducted to determine differences between baseline and follow-up surveys. RESULTS A total of 31 oncology HCPs completed both baseline and follow-up surveys, with over 3,700 patient CM assessment forms being completed during the 4-month study period. At the end of the study, HCPs reported greater CM knowledge (p < 0.001), readiness to support cancer patients’ CM decisions (p = 0.002), and willingness to consult with another HCP about CM (p = 0.004). No significant change in HCPs’ reported attitudes towards CM, or clinical practices related to CM were observed. CONCLUSION Implementing a practice guideline, including a CM education session and a standardized assessment form was found to improve oncology HCPs’ self-reported CM knowledge and readiness to answer cancer patients’ questions about CM. The findings provide support for future knowledge translation research aimed at standardizing how CM is addressed within cancer care settings.

Iranian nurses' knowledge and attitude toward complementary and alternative medicines: Is there any relation with quality of nursing care?

“…Despite the different study populations, the coherence of these studies shows that there is no need to invest in a specific target group to teach the use of CAM, and nurses are responsive to education in any demographic situation. Studies conducted by Hayward et al ( 51 ) on oncology healthcare providers in Canada and Siedlecki ( 52 ) on US nurses used training as a factor influencing CAM knowledge. Given that research similar to the present study has been conducted on different medical professions in different societies of the world ( 53 ), this issue is still of particular importance ( 49 ).…”

Initiating Conversations on Integrative Oncology Amongst Cancer Professionals, Integrative Medicine Practitioners and Cancer Patients – The CANCERTALK Initiative

“…It is up to individual clinicians to invest in extra training and there is currently an increasing number of oncology and hematology professionals who have embedded integrative medicine in their practice, albeit a small minority amongst the UK healthcare professionals. Our study is an evaluation of the first UK cancer podcast which attempts to initiate conversations between integrative practitioners, mainstream clinicians and patients or patient advocates, in order to bridge the gap between mainstream and integrative medicine practitioners [8,9]. The purpose of the podcast is to pave the way to new models of Integrative Oncology care in the NHS and the collaborative design of clinical practice guidelines in Integrative Oncology [10,11].…”