An Educational Package for Oncology Nurses Regarding Fertility Preservation among Female Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: Advances in cancer treatment are significantly affecting the survival rate of females affected with cancer. However, chemo-radiotherapy regimens have a negative impact on future fertility. Oocyte cryopreservation is one of the available methods to females to preserve their fertility. Study Aimed to evaluate the effect of educational package for oncology nurses regarding fertility preservation among female cancer patients. Subjects and Method: A quasi-experimental pre and post-test design. Purposive sampling consisted of 61 nurses selected according to the inclusion criteria. The study conducted at oncology center, Mansoura University Hospital. Tools: Self-Administered Structured Questionnaire, Nurses' knowledge regarding fertility preservation, Nurse's attitude towards Fertility Preservation and Nurses Satisfaction Scale. Results: There was statistically significant improvement in the total knowledge score regarding fertility preservation from (8.2 ±3.1) pre-intervention to (12.3 ±5.4) post-intervention with highly significant difference (P= 0.001). The total attitude score of the study sample regarding fertility preservation were improved significantly from (26.5 ±4.9) preintervention to (40.4 ±4.6) post-intervention with highly significant difference (P= 0.001). Furthermore, the majority of nurses were satisfied, their satisfaction level reach 73.8%. There was significant association between the post-intervention total knowledge and attitude level among the nurses (X 2 7.389, p=0.025). Conclusion: Educational package was effective to improve the nurses' knowledge and attitudes towards fertility preservation as a novel method to sustain future reproductive capacity in newly diagnosed cancer female patients. Recommendations: The importance of considering this novel method to sustain fertility preservation in newly diagnosed cancer female patients as one of the main items in the nursing curriculum and evolve protocols and pathways to empower timely counselling and communication between health care team and the newly diagnosed cancer patients regarding fertility preservation options. Also, the need for a multidisciplinary collaboration between oncology health team and reproductive health care providers to improve awareness and availability of future fertility preservation in newly diagnosed cancer patients.